Yasujiro Ozu's Passing Fancy (1933) is a slight inferior film from the director's silent era. Takeshi Sakamoto plays an unresponsible widowed father whose attempts at courting a younger lady lead to no good.
The film does play around with the themes Ozu often explored and there are a few interesting aspects in store for Ozu fans because he modelled the main character after his father and few other men he knew as a kid. There are times when the narrative simply implodes under the pressure caused by the imbalance of comedy and drama. Luckily that doesn't destroy the screenplay completely since it happens only on a few occasions that are surrounded by all around pleasant writing.
Ozu's form is a bit careless with random camera movement and stiff editing. However, he manages to get brilliant performances from the actors and especially the lead character's child is surprisingly natural in his role.
Even if Passing Fancy has its significant flaws, it is flawed in an interesting way for the fans of the director.
Score: 7 out of 10
I don't know about "inferior" -- what it may lack in technical perfection, i think is made up by the emotional qualities it explores so well in all their complexities; there is not just depth for the main character but for other characters as well. I liked the mix of comedy and drama, and will watch it again this week just for the pleasure -- but sure, 7 out of 10 might be fair enough or 8...
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