I watched the Ozu silent film Pumpkin and it was actually kinda funny

Is this worth watching today? Only if you have a soft spot for grainy black-and-white movies where the jokes are mostly people tripping over their own feet. If you are a film student trying to see everything Ozu ever touched, you will probably find it charming.

Anyone who needs a plot that actually makes sense should probably skip this one. It is a bit of a mess, but a fun kind of mess. 🎃

The movie is called Pumpkin, which is a weird name for a movie that is mostly about a guy who can't get his life together. I think the title refers to his head or something, but the movie never really explains it clearly.

It starts off with some very fast-paced slapstick. You can tell Ozu was watching a lot of American comedies back then, maybe something like The Perfect Clown or even Running Wild.

The main character has this mustache that looks like it was glued on five minutes before the cameras started rolling. It actually wiggles when he gets nervous. I spent about ten minutes just watching the mustache instead of reading the title cards.

There is a scene in a small room where three guys are trying to sit down at the same time. It goes on for way too long. Like, at least thirty seconds of just shifting chairs and bumping knees.

I think it was supposed to be a metaphor for something, but honestly, it just looked like they didn't rehearse it. It made me laugh though, mostly because of how awkward the silence felt even though it is a silent movie.

Chishū Ryū shows up and he looks so incredibly young. If you only know him from the later movies where he plays the sad grandpa, this will blow your mind. He has this energy like he just drank five cups of coffee.

The lighting is pretty bad in the indoor scenes. You can see the shadows of the camera crew on the wall during the kitchen scene. I don't think they cared much about polish back in 1928, or maybe they were just in a huge rush.

The story involves a girl and some money, but I honestly lost track of who owed who what. There is a lot of pointing at pockets and shaking heads. It reminds me of the frantic energy in The Gasoline Buckaroo, just without the horses.

One thing that really stuck with me was the way they used the actual pumpkin. It just sits there on the table like it is a member of the cast. At one point, the main guy looks at the pumpkin and sighs, and I felt that.

The film ends very abruptly. Like, it just stops. I thought my player had glitched, but no, that is just the end of the movie. It is very unsatisfying if you like resolutions, but kinda perfect if you just want to get on with your day.

I noticed the set for the office looked exactly like the set for the house, just with a desk instead of a table. They probably just flipped the walls around. It gives the whole thing a very cozy, homemade feeling that you don't get anymore.

The girl in the movie, Yurie Hinatsu, has this one reaction shot where she looks directly into the lens for a second too long. She looks like she is wondering if she left the stove on at home. It is easily the best part of the whole film.

If you have seen Caught in the Fog, you know that these 1920s shorts can be hit or miss. This one is a hit if you don't take it seriously at all. It is just a bunch of people being silly in front of a camera.

I think the script was probably only three pages long. Most of it feels like the actors were just told to "look busy" or "look sad." Tatsuo Saitō is especially good at looking like he has no idea what is happening.

The print I saw was pretty scratched up. Sometimes a big black line would just appear over someone's face. It added to the vibe, honestly. Like watching a ghost story that is accidentally a comedy.

Anyway, don't go into this expecting a masterpiece. It is just a little slice of history that happens to have a vegetable in the title. It is better than a lot of the stuff that came out that year, like The Scarlet Lady, which was way too melodramatic for my taste.

One last thing—the shoes. Everyone in this movie has very shiny shoes. I don't know why I noticed that, but they really stand out against the dusty floors. Maybe the wardrobe budget all went to shoe polish.

Overall, it is a fun way to spend an hour if you want to see a master director before he became "the" Ozu. He was just a guy making jokes back then. And the jokes still mostly work, even if the mustache doesn't.