Category: Non-EnglishA first for me and an introduction to Ozu from here, having read extensivley but never really felt his Cinema earlier, Ozu's Late Spring is based on Father and Daughter a novel by Kazuo Hirotsu.
The film revolves around a father and daughter who are both widowed by circumstances (hi America!) and in an ironic twist they have both given up on finding love again. The love they share is very precious and the daughter doesn't want to let go and even though the father eventually tricks the daughter into getting married he finds himself all alone with nothing but loneliness.
Ozu's cinema is very simple and rather than rely on melodrama to get his message across he completely gets the repressed feelings from the father. The daughter on the other hand is a picture of sun shine and while her face completely captivates the camera it can also turn into a jealous figure when she finds that her father might be getting re-married. In a theater scene we see Kabuki figures performing we also get to see the lead actress having a massive change of heart.
At the end there's a beautiful shot of the sea, a sea which is shown only once throughout the film but reflects the final ode perfectly well. Tons of references to America and American values imbibed into a generation of Japanese (ref: Baseball and Values) there's also a lot to be shown in the beauty of Japan. Hats off to him.
Recommendation level: 4/5 - A little difficult to actually sit through but definitely a simple tale that reaches at the heart with the right classical music too! Watch it!! This is from my own collection.
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