The Only Son (1936)

The first of Ozu talkies is full of interesting items to consider.  First, the beginning seems to find Ozu in full experimental mode, not as much testing sound as testing the effectiveness of the long take.  In a series of opening shots, Ozu pushes the length of the static frame in ways he had not done in his filmography to date.   

The Only Son also reminds once again that Ozu was a cinephile.  Not only does a shot of Joan Crawford hang prominently in Ryosuke's Tokyo home but there is an entire scene of a movie-within-a-movie as Ryosuke introduces his mom to the advent of sound in cinema. 

Politics also creep in, as we are three years out from the Second World War.  A poster that is unclear in the beginning is finally revealed front and center in Ryosuke's Tokyo home as an advertisement for Germany. 

It will be interesting to watch Ozu as he uses sound more and more.  As to be expected, in his first talkie he does not seem entirely comfortable with it, employing very little ambient sound and using it in more functional than expressive ways.