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Color
. 128 minutes
Shochiku Ofuna Studio
Written By
Ozu Yasujiro
Noda Kogo
Satomi Ton (novel)
Cinematography
Atsuta Yuharu
Music By
Satio Kojun
Cast
Hara Setsuko (Miwa Akiko)
Tsukasa Yoko (Ayako)
Okada Mariko (Sasaki Yuriko)
Sata Kenji (Goto Shotaro)
Saburi Shin (Mamiya Soichi)
Sawamura Sadako (Fumiko)
Kuwano Miyuki (Michiko)
Shimazu Masahiko (Tadao)
Ryu Chishu (Miwa Shukichi)
Kita Ryuji (Jirayama Seiichiro)
Mikami Shinichiro (Koichi)
Nakamura Nobuo (Taguchi Shuzo)
Miyake Kuniko (Nobuko)
Tasiro Yuriko (Yoko)
Shigaragi Koji (Kazuo)
Watanbe Fumio (Sugiyama Tsuneo)
Senno Akako (Takamatsu Shigko)
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Synopsis
At the annual memorial service of their friend
Miwa, three old buddies propose to find a husband
for his daughter Ayako. She refuses because she
wants to remain by her mother Akiko's side. The
men, who harbour a lifetime crush on Akiko then
scheme to marry Akiko to one of them. This causes
great discard and distress. With the interception
of Ayako's friend Yuriko, mother and daughter
reconcile, and attend the latter's weddings with
a mixture of joy and sorrow.
Thoughts from Ozu
In this world, people love to complicate the
simplest matters. Things may appear complicated,
but who knows, the essence of life may be unexpectedly
simple. That's what I aimed to express. It's easy
to create drama through emotions, crying and laughing
denote sadness or joy to the audience. However,
that's just an explanation. Even if feelings are
expressed, it doesn't mean that the characters
personality or style has been properly represented.
For a long time, I have wanted to do away with
all the dramatic elements, to express sorrow without
tears, to capture a sense of life without any
intense emotional upheaval. Since Brothers
and Sisters of the Toda Family, I have striven
for this effect, but this approach is not easy
to master. Late Autumn was acceptable but it hadn't
completely attained that state yet.
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Personal
Thoughts and Comments
In Late Autumn Ozu shifts his most common
relationship (father-daughter) into a relationship
of a widowed woman (brilliantly played by Setsuko
Hara) who leads her daughter to believe she wants
to remarry (much like the father in Late Spring),
as the mother is pushing marriage onto her daughter
(along with the daughters best friend and three
middle-age men who all wanted to marry her mother),
yet she insists she is fine without a husband.
Late Autumn certainly recalls Ozu's definitive
1949 masterpiece Late Spring, yet it is
a bit more of a gentle, lighthearted comedy that
still plays on many of Ozu's traditional themes
and complex emotions. Ozu's use of composition
acts as another character in the film and captures
most of the expression and emotions of the film
(most notably in the masterful use of color).
Ultimately with Late Autumn Ozu captures the essence
of life's simplicity and humans tendency to complicate
it. At the core of all of Ozu's postwar films
is the unavoidable sadness of life caused by change.
The ending captures this in a perfectly bittersweet
way as we see Akiko alone. She is sad that her
daughter has left, yet is smiling as she accepts
this sadness and is happy for her daughter. But
again we wonder if they've conformed their simple
life of happiness to fulfill the 'obligations'
of life. Simple, humorous, warm, and deeply touching,
Late Autumn is another masterpiece from one of
cinema's true masters of filmmaking.
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