spoilers ahead:
1949) Late Spring
Wow. This film really seems to be a turning point for Ozu. The setting of the film feels much more modern than any of his previous films, and Ozu is handling a much larger cast than he has ever had before, and I believe is his longest film up to this point. It is an epic, make no mistakes about it.

There are a lot of ironies in the film. Ironies like the Coca-cola sign along the road, and the english words on the signs. Noriko herself is a full of irony. While she is perhaps the most modern looking and behaving-the way she acts, that she says that she doesn’t believe in arranged marriages-but she is also much more traditional in her thoughts than her father and the other characters around her. In a way, I think that Noriko is meant to represent Japan, in that Japan was at a turning point and she is caught up in it, but she is still an adolescent, and must grow before she can become truly modern; and as the film goes along she comes to accept that re-marrying is not a sin, and she also ends up marrying herself, finally becoming full-grown.

Ryo Chisu, plays her father, and while he is playing an older character than he has ever played before, he is indeed one of the most modern characters in the entire film. You can tell this immedtiately simply by the way that Noriko acts and the way that he has raised her to be-for as much as she may try to think in the traditional manner, he has spoiled her and she acts much more like a westerner than a traditional Japanese girl. Ryo is the modern man, and you can tell in the scene in which he serves Noriko and her friend Aya-not common for a man to do at this time.

In the end her father actually tricks her into marrying, because he knows that the only way that she will leave him and marry, is if she thinks that another woman will take her place. He tells Aya that its the biggest lie he’s ever told, but he’s so incredibly happy that he did it, yet there is no mistaking how empty he now feels after his sacrifice. This is a slice of life, a masterpiece of the cinema.

This is certainly Ozu’s most complex film up to this point, as well as his best and there is so much to be said about it. I look forward to viewing this film many times in the future.