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."
Background
The 54th film, shot from August to November 1962.
In
February 1962, during Ozu's and Noda's preparation
of the next screenplay in the mountain resort
Tateshina, Ozu's mother died at the age of 86.
Ozu was very attached to his mother, more so because
he remained a bachelor. He wrote the screenplay
for An Autumn Afternoon with sorrow and
loneliness in his heart. This was Ozu's first
film for Shochiku in two years. The house of the
protagonists is somewhere in the Tokyo suburbs,
but the lifestyle depicted belongs to the "uptown"
atmosphere Again, the daughter's marriage. However,
Ozu and Noda did not necessarily approve of this
subject. This was the time when the decline of
film business began, and the companies could not
permit a commercial failure in the only film that
a major director made in one year. A young and
beautiful actress was to be the core to ensure
commercial success. The depiction of the surroundings
permitted the adaptation to different social changes.
In April of that year, the five big production
companies (Shochiku, Toho, Toei, Daiei and Nikkatsu)
agreed upon a strict ban of lending or borrowing
actors and directors from each other's company.
It was necessary to cast film film with Shochiku
actors, and the daughter to get married is Iwashita
Shima. The central human relationship is again
the father-daughter relationship, mixed with the
friendship of some middle-aged men (as in Late
Autumn). However, new elements are introduced,
such as the married son's contemporary life in
a a housing development, and the former middle-school
teacher's misery, giving this film a rather bitter
taste. In the same way, the relationship between
father and daughter is comparatively contemporary
and relative, and this change also extends to
the "uptown" lifestyle. The father does
not only drink and chat frequently with his friends
in a restaurant in Ginza, he also goes to a cheap
bar with a suburban atmosphere where the proprietress
reminds him of his late wife. In the last scene,
the evening of the daughter's wedding, the father
returns home drunk, after having been in that
bar. On the way to the kitchen, he stops suddenly
and gazes at the staircase leading to second floor,
where his daughter had lived. In his imagination,
the father goes upstairs and stands in front of
the mirror. This is more vivid that in other films
(Late Spring has the same construction),
and different from the screenplay. It would have
been interesting to see yet another Tokyo in Ozu's
next time, but this film was to be his last.
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. While it
is true he was in the early stages for another
film, An Autumn Afternoon seems 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. 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.
