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Black
and White . 144 minutes
Shochiku Ofuna Studio
Written By
Ozu Yasujiro
Noda Kogo
Cinematography
Atsuta Yuharu
Music By
Satio Kojun
Cast
Awajima Chikage (Sugiyama Masako)
Ikebe Ryo (Shoji)
Kishi Keiko (Kaneko Chiyo)
Takahashi Teiji (Aoki Taizo)
Ryu Chishu (Onodera Kiichi)
Yamamura So (Kawai Yutaka)
Sugimura Haruko (Tamako)
Fujino Takako (Aoki Terumi)
Taura Masami (Kitagawa Koichi)
Urabe Kumeko (Kitagawa Shige)
Miyake Kuniko (Kawai Yukiko)
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Synopsis
During a hike with commuter-friends, a romantic
spark grows between Shoji and Kaneko, nicknamed
"Goldfish" for her big eyes. They have
an affair and Shoji becomes more and more estranged
from his wife Masako. When he forgets the anniversary
of their deceased child, she is deeply hurt. They
row over him bringing home rowdy war comrades
and his suspected infidelity. When Kaneko turns
up at their doorstep, Masako leaves home. Following
the death of a co-worker, Shoji is transferred
to Okayama. Before he takes off, Shoji visits
a former superior Onodera. Soon afterwards, Masako
joins him at the advice of Onodera and they promise
to start afresh.
Thoughts from Ozu
It had been a while since I dealt with the
salaryman, I wanted to have a go at representing
their lifestyle. The thrill and aspirations one
feels as a fresh graduate entering society gradually
wane as the days go by. Even working diligently
for 30 years doesn't amount to much. I tried to
portray the pathos of the salaryman's life as
society undergoes transformation. Screening time
was the longest among my postwar films. I tried
to avoid anything dramatic, and instead piled
up scenes where nothing at all happens, so as
to let audience feel the sadness of their existence.
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Background
The
47th film, shot from August to December 1955.
There is an interval of more than two years since
Tokyo Story. As executive of the Film Director's
Association of Japan, Ozu was busy solving the
problems concerning The Moon Has Risen
(Tsuki wa noborinu) in 1954. He had written
this scenario in 1947 together with Saito Ryusuke,
but its filming was postponed. The Film Director's
Association wanted to raise funds. They paid Ozu
for his scenario. The actress Tanaka Kinuyo was
to direct it (her second film after Love Letter/Koibumi,
1953), and production was taken over by the Nikkatsu
studios. Ozu convinced the reluctant Tanaka and
re-wrote the scenario together with Saito and
Noda Kogo. However, Shochiku, Toho, Daiei, Shintoho,
and Toei, the members of the "five-company-agreement
against Nikkatsu" (which was made in the
previous year to protect the market against the
new rival), opposed this plan, and things got
into a muddle. In August of 1954, Ozu, who was
working with Noda on the scenario for Early
Spring in Noda's mountain villa in Tateshine,
had to return quickly to straighten out the problems.
Therefore, the completion of the screenplay for
Early Spring was postponed. In April 1952,
Ozu had moved to Kita-Kamakura with his mother,
and also his sister lived with them in the beginning.
Noda Kogo had lived in Kamakura-Jomyoji since
pre-war times. Usually Ozu attached great importance
to the living conditions of his protagonists,
and his own change of residence was an extremely
important point in his life. Its first reflection
appears in Early Spring. The story was
influenced by a group of young people who often
came to Noda's house, but there was no direct
model for the film. The house of the protagonists
is not in Kamakura, but in Tokyo's suburbs. This
is not uptowan, but neither is it shitamachi or
the suburbs. This choice hints at Ozu's feeling,
that in post-war Tokyo, the distinct features
of the different parts of town were lost, the
separation from Tokyo or from (the quasi-Tokyo)
Kamakura to the countryside is self-punishment,
and is forgiven because of his apartment. The
introduction of the sick fellow worker stresses
Tokyo's conceptual metaphor, the contrast of Tokyo
and "outside". For the first time, characters
with a strong individuality are added, enlarging
the details. This corresponds to the weakening
of Tokyo's concreteness in Ozu's work.
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Personal
Thoughts and Comments
Following a short hiatus, Early Spring
is the first film Ozu made after his acclaimed
1953 Tokyo Story. Here Ozu is mostly examining
the life of one man, and his job and marriage.
Different from traditional Ozu, the man is a working
class man (recalling his characteristically complex
Kihachi films during Ozu's silent era). Above
all Ozu sympathetically observes the value of
life and this working man's search for meaning.
Early Spring certainly rates among his
most expression social statements of the Japanese
work life and the focus seems to be on the younger
generation of Japanese society. A generation of
rebelliousness and transition into a more Westernized
Japanese world. Maybe not among his very greatest
masterworks, Early Spring remains a deeply
detailed film and among Ozu's emotionally darkest
work.
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