Japanese Film Greats – Director Yasujiro Ozu
Late Spring and Tokyo Story: Masterpieces of 1950s Japanese Cinema
Oct 13, 2009
A contemporary of Nobel Prize winner, Yasunari Kawabata, Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) crafted films that exemplify the golden age of Japanese cinema. Two of these, Late Spring (Banshun, 1949) and Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari, 1953), are touching glimpses into a post-war Japan whose bustling recovery and economic growth are eclipsing its traditional values. Like Kawabata’s novels, Ozu’s films possess an air of melancholy and quiet fatalism that mark them as an elegy for a disappearing Japan.
Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara Convincing in Father and Daughter Roles
Featuring the same actors in similar leading roles – Chishu Ryu as the wise, aging father, and Setsuko Hara as the sweet and self-sacrificing daughter – both films are excellent examples of Ozu’s deeply reflective technique and thematic emphasis on the mundane but deeply felt events in the daily lives of ordinary people. Indeed, as has been noted by film critic, Donald Richie, it is the family that makes up the entire world in Ozu’s later films.
Late Spring centers on the relationship of Noriko, the dutiful and cheerful daughter (Hara), who lives happily with her widowed father (Ryu), a college professor. Approaching the age when she will cease to be marriageable, Noriko is urged to marry by both her aunt and her divorced best friend. Knowing that Noriko is reluctant to leave him alone, the father constructs a small lie which compels Noriko to accept the offer of an arranged marriage.
Tokyo Story presents a familial theme involving an aging couple, (Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama) who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. The couple soon realizes that the children are too busy to pay them any attention. Only a widowed daughter-in-law, Noriko (Setsuko Hara) gives them the tender respect of a daughter. The film ends with the mother’s unexpected death and the father’s acknowledgement that only Noriko has acted as a daughter should.
Ozu Pays Homage to the Japanese Aesthetic and Traditional Culture
Audiences used to the fast-action movies of recent years may have difficulty appreciating both the themes and the slow, reflective tone of Late Spring and Tokyo Story. Ozu trains his lens lovingly on scenes of tranquil beauty, and employs repetitive shots of nature - of the same frame of trees swaying in the wind, for example - to underscore his message of an underlying natural order to things within which men and women must also operate.
But for those willing to slow down to Ozu’s pace, the rewards are great. The viewer has time to absorb the subtleties of each scene and to study the relationships among the various characters, as well as to take in the nuances of Japanese custom.
Extended scenes of revered Japanese traditional arts are also frequently included, such as the scenes depicting a tea ceremony and a Noh play in Late Spring. These sequences are a valuable cultural heritage in themselves not only providing further insight into the characters’ personalities and emotions, but also serving as quiet pools of stasis amidst the playing out of the plot line.
The Most Japanese of Film-Makers
Whereas Kurosawa is recognized for dealing with universal themes, Ozu is considered by his countrymen as the most Japanese of film-directors and Late Spring and Tokyo Story are arguably his greatest films. Frequently cited as among the best movies ever made not only in Japan but worldwide, they are a must-see for anyone interested not only in Japanese movies but in great film-making in general.
References: Richie, Donald. Ozu. University of California Press. 1974
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