Matthew B
Yasujirō Ozu is seen as one of the most Japanese of film directors, and this hindered his discovery in the west. It is certainly true that Ozu's films are steeped in the culture of his native country, and involve storylines that might seem alien to many modern white westerners. Late Spring concerns plans for an arranged marriage that is not readily identifiable to people brought up in a different culture.
Nonetheless an Ozu film is more relatable to the lives of westerners than a James Bond film. The director focused the attention of many of his films on family life, and, to a lesser extent, working life. While it is true that the families are usually middle-class and their struggles are set against the changes in post-war Japan, the people and the emotions are familiar ones. The situations may be Eastern and unfamiliar, but the responses of the characters to their situation are universal, and it is this which provides an opening into Ozu's films for people from different cultures.
Ozu's characters move at a calm pace, and express emotions through action more than speech. Nonetheless there is not much action in an Ozu movie either, and the scenes unfold so slowly that it takes a while for us to register that the story has a progression and a meaning to it. Still these are not bland movies. Beneath the surface serenity, there is a hint of melancholy in all his works.
There is an argument for regarding Late Spring as the work of a conservative film director seeking to assert traditional values during a time of change. Indeed post-war Japan was a point in history where Japanese affairs were being managed by the Allied forces, and they controlled some of the output from cinema as well as other fields of Japanese life.
The backdrop in many scenes allow Ozu to assert the value of Japanese values, tradition and history. Some of the action takes place in temples, at a Noh theatre performance, and in the Zen Gardens. At the start of the film, a number of family members are kneeling together in a religious service known as a tea ceremony. Such scenes establish that Japan has its own identity and culture.
While Ozu does have the conservative's love of the past, he is not wholly unsympathetic to changes in contemporary Japan. These are acknowledged as facts, and there are several characters who embrace modern traits.
Not least among these is Noriko. She wears modern clothes, and sits in western chairs while her father and aunt tend to sit on the traditional tatami mats. This puts her on a different level to her older relations, physically as well as mentally.
Her friend Aya (Yumeji Tsukioka) has taken advantage of recent changes in divorce laws. She despises her ex-husband and successfully resisted attempts by her parents to make her re-marry. Like Noriko, Ana has become westernised. She does not drink traditional green tea, but prefers English tea drank from a cup with hands. She bakes shortcake, a western delicacy. She also has a job as a stenographer and maintains herself by her own efforts.
Neither of these women is portrayed unsympathetically. Ozu does not treat modernity or western life as an evil, but he does feel that there is a place for tradition too, and it is clear that he prefers the older ways of doing things.
The old and the new mingle together. Noriko embraces modern culture and resists pressure to marry young, but she does agree to an arranged marriage. Ana chooses to stay single, and yet pressures Noriko to agree to an arranged marriage anyway. Shukichi is old-fashioned, but also a liberal parent who gives his daughter much freedom. There are scenes where Noriko sits at ground level, and Shukichi sits in the higher chairs.
This dichotomy in Ozu's nature carries over into his style of moviemaking. The director did not wholly ignore changing trends in cinema. He eventually embraced talking pictures, and therefore survived the disappearance of silent cinema. Beginning his career with black-and-white movies, Ozu's final films were made in colour.
In both cases, he made good use of the new medium, but only as a way of refining the traditional cinematic techniques that he had employed from his earliest days as a director. For example, Ozu often used careful positioning of objects to create a three-dimensional effect as he does in Late Spring. The camera is sometimes placed on the other side of a doorway, and items are placed, so that some are closer to the camera and some further away.
This may seem obvious trick used in all films, but Ozu's use of it is artful and insistent. He draws attention to the structure and size of the room. After Ozu began to make films in colour, he would reinforce the sense of dimension by putting items of a conspicuously different colour (usually red) in each scene so that foreground and background were emphasised.
In many other ways, Ozu stuck to the same cinematic techniques he has used in his earlier films and merely refined them, leading some cynics to suggest unfairly that he merely made the same film over and over again.
For Ozu, a film should not draw attention to its technique. His camera rarely moves, except when it is on a dolly following walking or cycling characters. There is no reframing of shots. The camera does not zoom in or out. Often it is placed close to the ground, emulating the point of view of someone sitting on a tatami mat, rather than one of those new-fangled high western chairs, thus identifying Ozu's worldview with the traditional way of life.
Music is gentle and rarely draws attention to itself. It is not there to emphasise dramatic events in the story. It provides a sense of gentle melancholy, but no histrionics. Then there are the pillow shots for which Ozu is famous. Scene changes are denoted by shots of random objects, on which the camera lingers for a few seconds.
I wrote a longer appreciation of Late Spring on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2022/01/27/late-spring-1949/
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
08/28/23
Full Review
Mikey H
My favorite from Ozu.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
07/27/23
Full Review
dave s
With all of the low angle shots and the predominantly stationary camerawork, there is no mistaking Late Spring as anything other than a Yasujiro Ozu film. Living with his 27-year-old daughter Noriko (Setsuko Hara) after the death of his wife, Shukichi (Chishu Ryu) is determined to make sure that his daughter marries. Noriko, however, does not consider marriage an option as she is loyal to her aging father and refuses to leave him alone. Rich in both themes and style, Late Spring is Ozu at his best, a touching meditation on life, loyalty, and tradition. While the music feels a bit overbearing at times, it's a small complaint about an otherwise excellent film. Never has the peeling of an apple been so emotional.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
Full Review
Thomas V
Familiar ground from Ozu, with the great Setsuko Hara playing her signature spinster role. I know, this is the earliest of the Noriko trilogy, and not the best but still very, very good. The themes and plot are familiar, but Ozu's work is so peaceful, gentle, beautiful and subtle, and with such sensitivity, that it never gets old. Ozu for me is the perfect marriage of style and substance. He turns ordinary family drama into works of stunning beauty.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
Alessandro B
The emotions, decisions, and relationships in Late Spring manage to feel so effortlessly human and real. It's a comfort to watch but it's conclusion stings as if you saw a loved one make a poor, lasting decision.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
07/26/22
Full Review
Audience Member
If you've ever seen one of Ozu's films one can say they've seen them all.
The concept of a subservient cultural arranged marriage simply does not appeal or speak to me at all. The lack of emotions and phony smiles of the main character Noriko are repellent. Not only did I find this film boring and slow moving but its content is just dull . The entire story revolving around someones reluctance to get married without ever making a firm decision to choose their own path is just pitiful. Throughout the movie we see repeated interactions between the characters making the same mistakes without any hope for improvements to their lifestyles. They complain about being controlled inwardly but are reluctant to ever express their true feelings much less do anything about it to change the outcome. In the end they continue to lead a very unhappy existence because they allow others to make decisions for them. Can't give it a good rating because non of the characters experience any true growth or learn from their mistakes.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
Full Review
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