Irony in Communications in Ohayo

Irony in Communications in Ohayo

Yasujiro Ozu's Ohayo presents the irony of non-communicative communications that dominate so much of the social interactions of adults. The film's title means "Good Morning" which is a reference to the meaningless manner in which people typically greet one another, often asking "How are you?" without the exchange actually meaning anything and without any genuine interest either in answering or in receiving a substantive answer to the question. In the film, two young boys, Isamu and Minoru Hayashi, decide to express their rebellion and their disappointment at their parents' refusal to buy a television set for them and their rebellion by ceasing to communicate with everyone else, both at home and at school. Meanwhile, the film depicts the types of conversations and exchanges among the adults as completely superficial, petty, and highly subject to misunderstandings that lead to unpleasant social consequences.

The film opens with a dispute among some of the women in the social circle of Isamu and Minoru's parents. The treasurer of the Wives' Club, Mrs. Hayashi, argues vehemently that she turned over money to Mrs. Haraguchi, while Mrs. Haraguchi claims never to have received it. In her absence, the other women initiate speculation and gossip about Mrs. Haraguchi and conclude that she must have used the stolen money to purchase her new washing machine. Only after feelings have been hurt, reputations impugned, and long-term friendships have been ruined do the women find out that it was an honest mistake that was the fault of Mrs. Haraguchi's mother that the dues were unaccounted for. Mrs. Haraguchi apologizes for the mistake. Throughout this entire episode, all of the women's husbands are completely unconcerned with the conflict erupting among their wives as they socialize by themselves in a local club. It suggests that there is little meaningful communication among the partners within each marriage about their respective lives.

Isamu and Minoru spend most of their free time watching television at the home of a neighborhood couple who have the only television in the community. Their parents refuse to buy them a television and make pejorative references to the waste of time and nonsense on the television; they also disapprove of the character of the neighbors because they suspect that the woman is a professional erotic dancer. The boys plead with their father to buy them a television so they might watch Sumo wrestling and baseball but their parents refuse. In a fit, Minoru argues that the types of conversations that his parents and the other adults share are even sillier than anything the boys want to watch on television and that the adults never talk about anything meaningful. He specifically points to the meaningless gossip and to the disingenuous way that the adults greet one another with a meaningless "Good morning." The boys decide to cease all verbal communications except between them in protest. This causes them trouble in school but it also triggers a problem among the adult. When the boys do not respond to Mrs. Haraguchi's morning greetings, she assumes the worst and imagines that her apology has not actually been accepted and that their mother has instructed them to rebuff her.