"It would be ideal if love and marriage always went together, but even if not, life is still worthwhile."

To begin with I have no firsthand knowledge of Japanese culture, added to which I am very much a Yasujirō Ozu novice (counting Late Autumn I've now seen three of his films), though perhaps devotee would be a more apposite descriptor since what little I've seen has inspired great interest. To this end I recently sourced and devoured legendary screenwriter/director Paul Schrader's Transcendental Style in Film, an astounding critical survey—undertaken prior to Schrader's Hollywood career—which meticulously analyzes Ozu's films (as well as those of Robert Bresson and Carl Theodor Dreyer) in relation to their cultural and metaphysical origins. Though I will…

I am sheepish to admit that Late Autumn is my introduction to Yasujirō Ozu, yet I somehow experienced a vague comfort watching this film. Nestled by the divine symmetry of his anchored compositions, I was quickly seduced by the sublime mise-en-scène and ethereal actors depicting a reworking of social satire and family drama I know intimately as a Jane Austen devotee. Ozu is famous for his narrow focus on evolving domesticity, marriage and generational disconnect, probing those themes in microcosmic detail while offering an overarching commentary on Japanese society at large. Austen, too, wrote exclusively about love, marriage, family, community and socioeconomics through critiques of the landed gentry in late-18th/early-19th century England, often exploring the dependence of women on marriage…

The laughter of the old men as they discuss how much fun they had arranging (ineptly) a marriage rings coldly as they sit, all camaraderie, without any awareness of the hurt they've caused. As a portrait of the cracks in traditional structures, this film is a fitting mirror image to Late Spring. The film captures the masculine presumptiveness that drives the men to get involved in relationships they don't need to be involved with, and the feminine frustrations of a life without a man in a patriarchal society. While I think Ozu's compassion is evident, I believe his focus is broader than merely the divide between men and women; he is exploring tradition (as always) and its complex affect on…

No Nonsense November #7

Coming to Ozu now feels like coming to an old friend. And seeing his actors and actresses, like seeing old friends. When I saw Chishu Ryu, I couldn't help it -- tears came. The final expression on Setsuko Hara's face is sublime. Quiet and tentative, it is such a fitting, triumphant look. It sends me all the way back to Chishu Ryu peeling his apple in Late Spring. I felt suddenly cast back. I remember how deeply I wept at that moment. How it has stuck with me for so long. The subtlest, quietest movement signalling the deepest, profoundest emotions. I think that is when I truly fell in love with Ozu. And so I unfold…

In this world, people love to complicate the simplest matters. Things may appear complicated, but who knows, the essence of life may be unexpectedly simple. That's what I aimed to express. - Yasujirō Ozu

Is there anything better than Ozu in color? It does more justice to the seasons specified by the title, at least those in English. And watching a film called Late Autumn only feels appropriate for this time of the year in N. America.

The mood of the film however isn't entirely austere, though the film slowly but surely veers in that direction. It revisits the premise of Late Spring, one of Ozu's best known films. But instead of a father being concerned about a marriage-age daughter,…

there’s such a familiarity with ozu’s films— the frame composition, the repeated pillow shots of places, the warmth of the color. it has always been something you’ve seen from his other films or even from directors inspired by him. his films are just serene, they almost feel like lullabies only it doesn’t make you fall asleep. it makes you drown into the world ozu has created, not much different from ours.

late autumn plays with the generational gap and patriarchy that we still experience today. women have always been subjected to being involved in relationships they don’t want to be in and gaslighting. even to this day, we are expected to be married off as that will make us “happy”.…

Conquering Ozu's seasons-related English international titles

A Setsuko Hara/Chishû Ryû world is a world I never want to leave. More than a reworking of the magnificent Late Spring (1949), Akibiyori, literally translated as "Clear Autumn Day", places the same central family dilemma but with roles reversed and a stronger emphasis on a post-war capitalist Japan and the social pressure exerted from a male white-collar operation, which might result in a criticism against this film under terms of vulgarity. Nevertheless, he reportedly wanted to showcase how people complicate the simplest of situations with their behaviors and schemes.

This film is labeled as a comedy, a perception I find interesting since all of Ozu's films have carried a consistent sense of humor…

“Marriage is really tedious when you think about it.”

So says Ayako, the young protagonist of a movie that may be Yasujiro Ozu’s most underappreciated masterpiece, Late Autumn (1960). It’s a noticeable shift from the mild-mannered, old-soul Ozu that most audiences are familiar with from his de jure masterworks Late Spring (1949) and Tokyo Story (1953). Ironically, Ozu in his youth sympathized more with the older generation; he made them out to be flawed but noble, patriarchal, kind. But later on in his career—and starting with the powerfully-wrought melodrama Tokyo Twilight (1957)—Ozu relaxes his view of today’s youth. He finds their insights to be fresher and more honest than the older generation’s. Whereas middle-aged, boozy geezers find it necessary in…

Another bittersweet remix from the Ozu canon, a story that reworks LATE SPRING (1949) and EARLY SUMMER (1951) from a humorously strange angle. Daughters are still resisting the efforts of men trying to sculpture them into arranged marriages, but here Ozu gives us an entirely new (and frankly bizarre) perspective on how this plays out. Rather than have the generational-marital pressure originate from within the central family unit, the effort springs from three meddling strangers (all brazenly male) who really only know the women of this story as acquaintances to a deceased friend. 

In other words, Ozu is telling a story about the tradition of arranged marriages from the invested interest of outsiders, men who have no business snooping into…

Akibiyori is the story of Akiko, a recently widowed woman who tries to persuade her daughter to marry and start a new chapter in her life. The young, modern and independent Ayako does not feel ready to take this step because, in addition to waiting for the right man to fall in love, she wants to prevent her mother from being left alone. With this simple premise, Yasujirō Ozu delves into human relations with a family portrait that depicts the great affection between a mother and her daughter while showing the social dynamics around marriage, generational differences, changing codes in japanese society and a traditional way of life that slowly seems to become extinct. There are clear similarities between this…

fiquei um pouco triste lendo umas reviews de pessoas que claramente não engajaram com o filme como eu, mas fazer o que. conflito geracional da crescente modernização, velhos intrometidos utilizando todo o poder da tradição pra sublimar um desejo não satisfeito da juventude, a relação que cada personagem estabelece com o espaço (nota com o taguchi se despe e como o viúvo mamiya o faz em comparação), o casamento que assume a face da morte. é um filme um pouco sobre embalsamento, mas também sobre como precisamos prosseguir. a impressão que fica é de um profundo equilíbrio. os velhos mesmo escrotinhos no fim o faziam visando a manutenção da amizade. a filha mesmo sem a mãe tem um futuro a…

A typically Ozu blend of light comedy and a healthy dollop of heartache where it counts.

You know what this honestly reminded me of? The tone, dialogue, and approach couldn't be more difficult, but I just kept comparing this film to one of Shakespeare's marriage farces. The plotting sounds like one of his setups: a trio of old men, all in love with a widow they knew as a shopgirl in their youth (and whose late husband was one of their friends), decide that the widow's daughter needs to be married off and they start tracking down a suitor for her. But the daughter doesn't want to get married and leave her mother all alone. And so they shift their…