"I Was Born, But..." Mise en Scene

The scene in this shot is bright and cluttered. There are four people in the shot (two men in western-styled clothes, a smaller boy and a woman). The shot clearly shows the westernization of Japan through the setting. The house (which is obviously not Japanese-styled) has three big windows, roman-looking vases and a lot of vegetation and outside furniture. There is a table and two chairs facing each other. One of the chairs has a boy sitting in it and on the back of it is a striped sack. The man to the far left is wearing western clothes. Specifically, he is wearing a sun visor and is holding a tennis racket. It can be assumed he was playing tennis. All signs point to him being upper class and it can also be assumed that this is his backyard. A woman, who is the only one dressed in a traditional kimono, is standing by his side and she is probably his wife. The look on her face seems very formal and comes off as distanced. He is looking down upon the other man in the shot, who is positioned in a deep bow that is almost at a right angle. The woman is looking down at the bowing man as well. A deep bow like the one shown in this shot represents respect or even apology. The bowing man has his hair slicked and is wearing a very nice suit. Only the younger boy's back is shown in this shot. He is wearing a plaid shirt and a bowler hat. Though his face and front is not seen, he seems to be focused on something or playing with something by the way his arms are up and bent. He seems like he is not paying attention to the adults in the shot.

I think this shot is significant and has a lot of meaning, especially in the way the characters are positioned. Here, it is clearly seen how much power the boss has over the father. It is symbolic how both the boss and his wife (a woman who doesn't really have that much power in general) both look down upon the father and the father is shorter than them both while bowed. The father even bows in front of the boss's son, who pays no attention to it and continues what he is doing. It is almost as if the boss's son has power over the father as well, which is shown in other scenes of the movie as well.