II. Shooting in the Round

Ozu shoots in the round in Tokyo Story, positioning the camera in various spaces around a room. While the characters remain in the center of the shot, the viewer can see different sides of the character, even behind their backs. A departure from the "180-degree rule applied in Hollywood" (Dresser 13), the use of 360-degree space has several effects.

By shooting in the round, any feeling of a two-dimensional "stage" is broken. The versatility of a traditional Japanese home is realized by this technique. Through the "movement of sliding screens" (Dresser 19), one can enter a room often from multiple directions. Since the screens can make up the walls of a room, once opened, neighboring rooms can combine in a variety of different ways. This creates new spaces and changes the structure of rooms by sliding multiple screens back and forth. Through the camera, it is almost as if the viewer is allowed open and close different screens around the characters. As a result, the room that the characters are sitting in becomes less of a "stage," and more of a place to explore the different perspectives and positioning of the actors. Through opening these different "screens" around a room, the subtle mannerisms of each character is separately brought into focus from different angles. Therefore, during dialogues, the relationships between family members can be analyzed not just by their words and facial expressions, but through an additional interpretation of their body language as well.