The ending of I was born, but - HH

 The ending of I was born, but  

The ending left me with a lot of admiration and a pinch of perplexity. For anyone who does not remember what it is, I will summarize it in the following bullet points.  

  1. After the fight, the father and his sons go to work/school again. They bump into the executive and the two brothers say that the father should come say hi to him.  

  1. Taro meets the two kids, and they have an exchange of the importance of their dads again and they all walk to school together in a very boylike and wholesome manner  

  1. They meet the bully who is struggling to solve the mysterious puzzle game. The big brother solves it but pranks the bully. They all go to school.  

  1. They meet the teacher on their way to school. The bully misses it when they all bow to him so he runs after the teacher to greet him. The movie ends when all the boys go to school together. The final scene is other boys going to school together, arms on each other’ shoulders.  


The ending is where all the major relationships in the movie come to some kind of resolution. The conflict between the father and his two sons is resolved, and it might be because the sons understand that it is a necessary thing for their father to do and they have a better sense of the power of money and hierarchy. This is not the first time that they encounter the fact that money is powerful: when they ask the alcohol saler to bully Taro too, the saler says he would not do that because Taro’s father buys even more alcohol than the two brothers’ father.  


Then the two boys meet Taro, who steps down from the car to go to school with them. Here we see them having a genuinely beautiful friendship moment when they ask whose dad is the best. Taro says the brothers’ dad is best, and the two brothers say Taro’s dad is best. Then they play that pointing-dead-resurrect game again and go to school together. I think this also confirm our point in class which says that the bullying and fighting among the kids are just ritual and games.  


But there’s a bittersweet taste to this scene when they go to school side by side, arms wrapped around each other. It makes me ask the question: will they grow up to be the boss-employee relationship just like their dads and this is just a moment of children innocence before everything is torn into pieces by social hierarchy? Or can this be a moment of hope that they will have a more genuine and sincere relationship? I do not know the answer to this, which I think is what Ozu wants us to feel. There is no definitive answer to this question because the future is unpredictable, but we can definitely appreciate the present when they are still children and everything is just an innocent game.  


I thought the movie could have ended there. It makes perfect sense if it did. But it did not. We see the bully again and we see them greeting their teacher. What is the meaning of that last detail when the bully runs after the teacher to greet him? Is it just a moment of comedy or does it mean something more than that?  

The final image of just boys in general going to school also perplexes me. It seems that Ozu doesn’t really end a movie with his characters, but with a more general image. We see this with “Tokyo Story” and now with “I was born, but”. No matter what his intention was, I feel moved by these images. Ozu does not end his movies with a closure of a particular story with particular characters, but wants to convey images, symbols and feelings. The sequences in “Tokyo Story” brings about melancholy of time, while this final scene of “I was born, but” is a snapshot of boyhood innocence. Therefore, even though the movie carries a heavy message of social hierarchies, it’s still a beautiful and heartfelt picture of childhood.  

Comments

  1. Krishnan VenkateshNovember 26, 2021 at 9:03 PM

    Beautiful. The thought that the boys' reconciliation means that now they have accepted the hierarchy and a life of struggle is deeply sad -- as if the easiness of childhood trust and friendliness is being used as a tool of submission. Perhaps the final image gives a loosening to that: the bully is really a nice kid, a good boy, who like everyone else wants to be liked and welcomed by his teacher. But is this trustf the teacher also a tool of submission? We need society and have to be reconciled to it, so we accept the little injustices -- but what is a "little" injustice?

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  2. Kai EnglischDecember 12, 2021 at 6:00 PM

    It makes me ask the question: will they grow up to be the boss-employee relationship just like their dads and this is just a moment of children innocence before everything is torn into pieces by social hierarchy? Or can this be a moment of hope that they will have a more genuine and sincere relationship? I do not know the answer to this, which I think is what Ozu wants us to feel."

    I had this question as well when I watched this scene, and I liked the way you framed the two options-is this fleeting comradeship, or is it evidence of a more lasting bond that goes beyond hierarchies. I wonder if another way to frame this question might be like, in the end, does how much does Ozu believe we have voluntary control over our own participation in social games. As I argued in one of my posts, I suspect the answer is "not much." However, I also wonder if as we get older, perhaps our idea of ourselves and our attachment to our position in a hierarchy changes. Maybe this is the wisdom of the dad. it remains an enduring question though

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