Late Spring

Late Spring (Banshun) (1949)

Runtime: 108 minutes

Directed by: Yasujiro Ozu

Starring: Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka, Haruko Sugimura, Hohi Aoki

From: Shochiku

Featuring more discussion of pickles and radishes than I was expecting.

Quite simply, last night felt like a night to check out a famous movie from a director known for gentle, comfy-feeling films that manage to address family drama while still feeling pleasant. Thus, Yasujiro Ozu and the Criterion Channel. This is not an all-timer like Tokyo Story; don’t worry, that’s no slight as it’d be foolish to think every movie I see from Ozu during the last 15 years of his life should be so grand that they all get the highest of ratings. Late Spring is still a great, great picture.

Setsuko Hara-in the first of six Ozu movies she did. When he died in ’63, that and previous health problems was why she peaced out and never returned to film again, putting a hard stop to her career-played Noriko, a 27 year old lady who is (gasp!) still not married, partially due to recovering from illness and partially due to living with her widowed dad and loving that austere lifestyle. Her aunt is unhappy that she is still single so she does some underhanded things to try and change her life.

What sounds like a simple story manages to display many different emotions along this journey, in a Japan that was still under occupation so there was some censorship issues but Ozu still managed to subtly show life in the Land of the Rising Sun despite any constraints… and also presents various Japanese traditions. Another person that joined Ozu’s stable was his old pal, screenwriter Kogo Noda. After this they worked together the rest of Ozu’s life.

It’d be a shame for me to say much more and thus spoil the magic and the wonder of this journey that the main characters go on, so I won’t. It isn’t a spoiler to say that Ozu’s trademarks are on full display: his pillow shots (I’m talking about outdoor landscape shots that are used to transition between scenes), camera real low to the ground, conversations between two characters that break the 180 degree rule, etc. All I’ll say is: wait until you see a scene involving a vase. As surprising as it may sound, the usage of such has sparked debate for decades now and its true meaning will likely forever be up for discourse.