by Alex Billington
May 10, 2026
Source: YouTube
“Life is an unknown course. The only constant is change.” 🎥 How does a black & white filmmaker shift into color and what choices does he make with color in his films? These are the key questions at the core of the mesmerizing and inspiring new video essay created by Every Frame a Painting. Created & edited by Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos, this new video essay is titled Ozu in Color and it examines the work of prolific Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu (best known for his B&W masterpiece Tokyo Story). This movie history essay analyzes Ozu’s later films that were shot in color (everything made after 1958). At first they examine how he learned color theory and developed his color style between his first two color films: Equinox Flower (1958) & Good Morning (1959). Then dig deeper into Ozu’s cinematography choices and what it all means, resulting in the rather intriguing idea that: “Ozu found a way to make color feel objective.” Not only is this video essay a fascinating exploration of why cinematography choices are so important in cinema, but now I just want to dive in & watch literally every film featured in here, and spend time with all the people in them.
Here’s the brief intro via YouTube: “The cinema of Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu is explored in this new exclusive TCM Original… With Tony narrating, the duo reveal new insight and a richer appreciation of Ozu’s use of color in his films.” This is a collab in partnership with the channel TCM (Turner Classic Movies) in celebration of this extraordinary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu (more on his Wikipedia). This video is made by filmmakers Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou. You can follow Zhou on Twitter @tonyszhou – they originally created the YouTube channel called Every Frame a Painting (watch more) that was “a series of video essays about film form, made from April 2014 to September 2016.” Last year they made the short film The Second (view the teaser here) along with a few new video essays, including a look at the visual comedy in Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs recently. You can watch & enjoy many Ozu films on Criterion Channel here.
