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THE
END OF SUMMER
Kohayagawa-ke
no aki
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1961
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Color
. 103 minutes
Takarazuka Eiga / Toho
Written By
Ozu Yasujiro
Noda Kogo
Cinematography
Nakai Asakazu
Music By
Mayuzumi Toshiro
Cast
Hara Setsuko (Akiko)
Nakamura Ganjiro (Kohayakawa Manbei)
Tsukasa Yoko (Noriko)
Aratama Michiyo (Fumiko)
Kobayashi Keji (Hisao)
Shimazu Masahiko (Masao)
Morishige Hisaya (Isomura Eiichiro)
Naniwa Chieko (Sasaki Tsune)
Dan Reiko (Yuriko)
Sugimura Haruko (Kato Shige)
Kato Daisuke (Kitagawa Yanosuke)
Sazan Kakyu (Chief Clerk)
Ryu Chishu (Farmer)
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Synopsis
In Kansai, Kohayagawa Manbei runs a sake business
that has a difficulty keeping up with the times.
As marriage arrangements for his late son's widow
Akiko and his youngest daughter Noriko get underway,
Manbei is preoccupied with clandestine visits
to his former mistress Tsune and Yuriko, who may
or may not be his illegitimate daughter. When
this comes to light, eldest daughter Fumiko has
a huge row with him, but he has a heart attack
and the family is devastated. He recovers but
soon has another heart attack, and dies at Tsune's
place. With Akiko's encouragement, Noriko turns
down the arranged marriage and purses her true
love who has been transferred to Hokkaido. Akiko
expresses the wish to bring up her son Minoru
alone, to the great disappointment of her suitor.
Thoughts from co-writer Noda Kogo
The End of Summer was produced by Toho's
affiliated company Takarazuka Eiga, with cinematography
by Nakai Asakazu. The entire staff belonged to
Toho. Although Ozu did not take any Ofuna staff
with him, it was an enjoyable experience because
everyone put in a lot of effort. The story's inspiration
came from the personal experience of a woman who
went on outings to Tateshina. One day, her father
suddenly fainted from a cardiac arrest. All the
children rushed home in a fluster, but he woke
up the next morning fit as a fiddle, as if nothing
happened.
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Background
The 53rd film, shot
from June to September, 1961. Ozu made this film
for Takarazuka Eiga, which is affiliated with Toho,
in exchange for the Toho stars, Hara Setsuko and
Tsukasa Yoko, whom he had cast in Late Autumn.
The scene is set at Fushimi in Kyoto. All the three
films that Ozu made for other companies other than
Shochiku are located elsewhere than in Tokyo. (The
family house in The Munekata Sisters is in
Tokyo, but Tokyo is not at all privileged in comparison
to the other places of action.) By chance or not,
all three films are considered of minor importance
in his work, and did not reach the acclaim of the
films for Shochiku,
maybe due to the separation from Tokyo. Only this
film is a pure Kansai (the region of Kyoto, Osaka,
and Kobe) film. The Moon Has Risen is set
in the Kansai region, but the family in this film
is evacuated from Tokyo. It seems evident that no
trace of Tokyo appears, but the Kansai characteristics
are also missing. Except for Nakamura Ganjiro and
Naniwa Chieko, all actors belong to the Takarazuka
studio, giving the film the contemporary image of
the Toho films. This Toho atmosphere was opposed
to Ozu's style. Moreover, since many actors wanted
to grasp at the good chance to appear in a film
by Ozu, they had to be cast in small scenes, giving
the film a somewhat diffuse impression. The role
of the old Kohayagawa Manbei (Ozu preferred this
pronunciation to "Kobayagawa") makes the
most of the leading actor Nakamura Ganjiro. The
story is developed around the conduct of the unaffected
and broad-minded Manbei. The daughter's marriage
and other events in the family are interwoven. The
main theme certainly centers on the head of the
family, and at his death, the family is about to
break up. In Ozu's films either death or marriage
causes the disintegration of a family, and this
special style does not change in The End of Summer.
After Manbei's funeral, smoke comes out of the chimney
of the crematory, ravens fly near the river and
a farm couple washes radishes in the river. They
talk about earthly transience without emotion. In
this way, a strange and uncomfortable atmosphere
is created. Ozu used to insert some dry humor in
these endings. He does not do it here. His inner
feelings previously covered by a rigorous style
and buffoonery, are exposed, reminding us of the
darkness of films like The Munekata Sisters
and Tokyo Twilight. |
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Articles
/ Essays
The
End of Summer : On Brightness and Darkness
by site contributor Doron B. Cohen
(Kyoto)
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Personal
Thoughts and Comments
"Is this it? Is this really it?"
The End of Summer rates among Ozu's most emotionally
complex, challenging, and ultimately darkest films.
As common with Ozu, this is a family study. Here
he's examining three separate generations of a
family and the relationships within them. The
family is presented in such a richly textured
examination and the films is able to capture the
authentic feeling of "ordinary" living.
There are no heroes or villains, only human beings
and as is the case with Ozu the separation and
miscommunication of the family results from the
inevitable changed caused by a death or marriage.
Here the primary focus of the family is the decline
of the traditional way of life. The film blends
hope and sadness to a point that seem as one,
culminating in a cameo performance by Ozu-regular
Chishu Ryu who reminds us of the "cycle of
life" as he watches smoke pour out from a
chimney. The End of Summer so closely observes
humor and sadness. Simplistic, yet a deeply thought-provoking
film that (like all Ozu's films) require repeat
viewings to fully absorb the emotional and visual
depth.
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| "Pillow
Shots" |
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| A
clip from The End of Summer |
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