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Early Summer

Play trailer Poster for Early Summer Released Oct 3, 1951 2h 4m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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100% Tomatometer 10 Reviews 92% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Noriko (Setsuko Hara) lives in postwar Tokyo with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her friends, her more traditionally minded family worries about the fact that she's still single at the advanced age of 28. When 40-year-old business associate Takako (Kuniko Igawa) proposes marriage, Noriko's family press her into accepting. But when her widowed childhood friend Kenkichi (Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi) returns to the neighborhood, she finds her heart leading in another direction.
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Early Summer

Critics Reviews

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Dave Kehr Chicago Reader If you've seen one Ozu film, you probably have the drift of his austere, quiet style, and you don't need my recommendation. If you haven't, take a chance. Jan 10, 2004 Full Review PJ Nabarro Patrick Nabarro Early Summer is centred around a bittersweet dichotomy of absence and transformation, and it's right up there as one of Ozu's finest films. Rated: 5/5 May 8, 2020 Full Review Michael E. Grost Classic Film and Television Rich look at romantic lives of everyday Japanese, with a profound lesbian subtext. Dec 3, 2016 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews The usual Yasujiro Ozu masterpiece about the clash in family life over traditional and modern values in postwar Japan. Rated: A+ Apr 2, 2006 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 4/5 Jul 23, 2005 Full Review Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid Ozu's films fill me with such a profound sense of serenity and emotional richness that it makes me wonder why people rent or buy anyone else's movies. Rated: 4/4 Sep 6, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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heinrichvon One of Ozu's very greatest movies, rich, funny and deeply moving. Setsuko Hara is sensational as usual. The last shot of the barley field is one of the most beautiful in all of Ozu's cinema, and is a reference and tribute to the Japanese war dead, though you have to be sensitive to the cultural subtext to get this. This was the last Ozu film to be chosen as best of the year by Japanese critics. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/18/23 Full Review Dave S Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a 28-year-old woman living with her family in Tokyo, content with her station in life despite ongoing pressure from her family to get married. Yasujiro Ozu's Early Summer is a story of one woman's resistance to traditional Japanese values, told is a serene style that is distinctly the work of Ozu - a subtle but effective music score, low camera angles, primarily stationary camerawork (the handful of tracking shots are actually a bit jarring), and perfectly framed and blocked shots. There are a couple of scenes that feel out of place (the two women chasing each other playfully around the table, for instance), but it is otherwise what we have come to expect from Ozu – an austere and tightly structured film about family and society. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/01/23 Full Review spencer p Yasujiro Ozu expands on the themes of his previous "Late Spring" with a bigger family and more enjoyable ensemble work. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review yvonne h Ozu's movies are extremely difficult to get into for me due to the fact there is Zero character development. Unlike most reviews who claim the depiction of emotions or genuinely heartfelt moments I feel all of these films lack these crucial moments. I expected more but felt extremely let down and dissatisfied. When it comes to marriage and family I expect more emotional feelings and above all honest and true life circumstances. Disingenuous reenactment just doesn't work here. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Relationships between the characters are di·ingenuous and fake. Despite the ending taking a semi unexpected turn the entire movie still lacked simple human feelings and Emotions. The drab and emptiness of the story never became interesting enough for me to consider it rewatching it. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Despite the leisurely tone which is so characteristic of Ozu's works, it strikes me that "Early Summer" is actually a confluence of many emotionally complex themes, all funneling together in a beautifully bittersweet statement about the quietly painful transience of life (mono no aware.) The themes will surely prove familiar to fans of Ozu, yet the dynamics surrounding those themes produce a wholly unique experience of this master director's sensibility. Comedy mingles with subdued devastation, and we are deeply moved by the film's penetrating and yet unadorned introspection into the emotional lives of its characters. This is a film that has a lot on its mind, and one would be hard-pressed to pin down the true focal point of the film's vision. That is not to say that it is scattered, but complex; ultimately weaving together a tapestry of family life governed only by the unpredictable impulses of the heart and conscience. "Early Summer" is certainly a must for fans of Ozu, and is guaranteed to impress, sadden, and delight in nearly equal measure. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Early Summer

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Movie Info

Synopsis Noriko (Setsuko Hara) lives in postwar Tokyo with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her friends, her more traditionally minded family worries about the fact that she's still single at the advanced age of 28. When 40-year-old business associate Takako (Kuniko Igawa) proposes marriage, Noriko's family press her into accepting. But when her widowed childhood friend Kenkichi (Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi) returns to the neighborhood, she finds her heart leading in another direction.
Director
Yasujirô Ozu
Producer
Takeshi Yamamoto
Screenwriter
Kôgo Noda, Yasujirô Ozu
Production Co
Shôchiku Eiga
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 3, 1951, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 10, 2017
Runtime
2h 4m
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