Color . 118 minutes

Shochiku Ofuna Studio

Written By
Ozu Yasujiro
Noda Kogo

Cinematography
Atsuta Yuharu

Music By
Satio Kojun


Cast
Iwashita Shima (Hirayama Michiko)
Ryu Chishu (Hirayama Shuhei)
Sata Kenji (Koichi)
Okada Mariko (Akiko)
Mikami Shinchiro (Kazo)
Yoshida Teruo (Miura Yutaka)
Maki Noriko (Taguchi Fusako)
Nakamura Nobuo (Kawai Shuzo)
Miyake Kuniko (Nobuko)
Tono Eijiro (Sakamoto, 'Gourd')
Sugimura Haruko (Tomoko)
Kato Daisuke (sakamoto Yoshitaro)
Kita Ryuji (Horie Shin)
Tamaki Miseyo (Tamako)
Kishida Kyoko (Bar Hostess)

Synopsis
Alarmed by the pathetic state of his old teacher's daughter - the young woman has sacrificed herself to take care of her father and now passed the age of marriage - the aging salaryman Hirayama realizes he must find his daughter Michiko a husband. His son Koichi understands that Michiko is fond of his colleague Mirua, but the young salaryman is already engaged. A desperate Hirayama turns to an old friend from school, who has previously proposed a candidate. After the wedding, Hirayama visits the bar that he has learned to frequent lately, one of the reasons being the proprietress resembles his dead wife.

Thoughts from co-writer Noda Kogo
In between making The End of Summer for Toho, Shochiku kept pushing Ozu to decide upon a name for the next feature. So it was decided that for the mean time, the new film will be entitled An Autumn Afternoon ("The Taste of Mackerel" in Japanese) but nothing has been confirmed or planned in detail. Yet we all had an unspoken understanding that one would see a mackerel on screen, but still sense the flavor of mackerel in the film. The time at which we wrote the script coincided with the conference of Japan's five major film companies which ruled that we could only deploy Ofuna staff or freelancers, and not borrow actors from other companies. In the end, we only borrowed Kato Daisuke from Toho. At the script development phase, Ozu's mother passed away. When Ozu returned to Tateshina after the funeral, he wrote this in his diary: "Spring has arrived. Cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Here I am agonizing over An Autumn Afternoon. Like torn rags, the cherry blossoms display a forlorn expression - sake tastes bitter as gall."

Personal Thoughts and Comments
An Autumn Afternoon is Ozu's final statement and in many ways one of his greatest films. Made in the year of his mothers death (whom he lived with his entire life), it is a deeply personal film of loneliness, and alcoholism and death. It's once again simplistic in approach and a film that reexamines many of his father-daughter themes used in previous films. It also contains moments that are inspirational and humorous. Really An Autumn Afternoon is the perfect final film for Ozu as he leaves his final marks on the quintessential style and themes of of his postwar work. As Ozu grew older his films became less and less focused on plot, but the emotional complexities always remain, and this is one of his richest emotional films. Above all, An Autumn Afternoon captures Ozu trademark postwar philosophy of life that change as well as sadness are both necessary and expected, and in order to be happy they should be accepted. Ozu's final images beautifully summarize both the film and his career: A drunk Shuhei (played by Ozu's definitive actor Chishu Ryu) mumbles to himself "Now I'm all alone" before the film cuts to a series of interior shots of the isolated home (representing Shuhei's emotional feeling). Then the film concludes with the final Ozu image of Shuhei alone and pouring tea before sitting down, a truly unforgettable final image that flawlessly (and incredibly simplistically) portrays the emotions of loneliness
and loss. It is rather fitting that his final film is one which examines the cycle of life. Ozu died a year after this film was made, but his life remains unforgettable.