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 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
05/18/23
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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 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/01/23
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spencer p
Yasujiro Ozu expands on the themes of his previous "Late Spring" with a bigger family and more enjoyable ensemble work.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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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 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
William L
"Why do you watch old movies? They're so boring and irrelevant!"
*Cue Yasujirō Ozu creating characters talking about how their parents are out of touch, they don't want to get married or have kids, and lamenting how their friends are drifting away as they age.
The middle and 'least acclaimed' of Ozu's so-called 'Noriko Trilogy' is still well-recognized as an important piece of post-war Japanese cinema. There's plenty of Ozu's familiar style - the quiet domesticity filled with care and tragedy in a more subtle, but emotionally undiluted way. Characters expressing emotion from behind a screen of formality and Japanese traditionalism, but still with sincerity; as a director, Ozu was so great at creating and capturing subtext in his actors' performances. Early Summer explores intergenerational conflict, both for its own sake and in the context of a changing Japan, with Setsuko Hara's Noriko as the smart young professional in Western attire engaging in gentle conflict with her kimono-clad mother (after not so easily navigating streets full of modern automobiles). While representative of a larger trend, the screenplay doesn't overlook tossing in idiosyncratic behavior for its characters to lend a degree of authenticity. Oddly enough, I think it may have been the more varied shooting locations (compared to Tokyo Story and its contemporaries) that may have taken this film slightly down a peg in status among Ozu's films, feeling just a bit more wandering as a result. Still poignant and relevant, though; half of hardcore movie fanatics are 20-somethings that don't want to get married and would rather be pulling a Noriko: eating noodles alone in the kitchen, despite the disapproval of their parents.
Independent of the rest of the film, seeing two kids loudly, jokingly calling their half-deaf grandfather an idiot to get an authentic smile out of him is just adorable. (4.5/5)
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
07/03/22
Full Review
Audience Member
There is a great harmony in everything about this film, which has a Japanese family of three generations wondering if it's time for the 28-year-old daughter (Setsuko Hara) to get married, and proposing an opportune match. Director Yasujiro Ozu uses many of his trademarks, both in content (e.g. two rascally little boys adding a cute element) and in style (e.g. with regular use of those shots from the mat, directly into a character's face as he or she speaks). While some of those things and the overall primness of the film threatened to get on my nerves, I have to say, I enjoyed it, and it finished strong.
In the film, Ozu gives us lessons in being gentle, patient, and bearing with the inevitable changes in life, and he does it in a simple way. Hara seems to be constantly smiling and cheery which may seem a little one-dimensional, but she ultimately stands up for herself in her own, non-confrontational way. The conversation she has with her friend, where the two discuss whether a love based on trust and friendship is true love, is deeply meaningful. The conversation she has with her sister-in-law while they're at the beach, the only one Ozu ever used a crane for, and where they talk about sacrifice and living a life without a lot of money, is as well.
The film gradually builds you to these strong late scenes, so if you're less into it early on, I would encourage patience. The subtle way in which a possible marriage is discussed, and not directly by the two involved (being intentionally vague here), is both cute and an insight into the culture. There are also universal, sentimental themes. The mother and father (Chieko Higashiyama and Ichiro Sugai) turn in strong performances, and the scene where they talk about a son who was missing in action in the war is striking. Their posing for a family picture, all smiles and jovial between takes, but then looking solemn before the picture is taken, is fantastic. The father's silence and patience as events in his family unfold culminates eventually in him recognizing that we all wish we could stay together with family members as they are, but that things inevitably change. It's quite beautiful.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
Full Review
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