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Late Spring

Country: Japan, Language: Japanese, 108 mins

Original Title

Banshun
  • Director: Yasujirô Ozu
  • Writer: Kazuo Hirotsu; Kôgo Noda
  • Producer: Takeshi Yamamoto

CGiii Comment

Ozu was a prolific Japanese filmmaker - purported to be gay, he lived with his mother all his life.

This so-called masterpiece is anything but...a 27 year old woman is basically forced into marriage - all she wants to do is look after her constant-smiling father.

It's not exactly ground-breaking stuff...it's mannered, polite and wholly artificial...considering when and where it was made - in a defeated occupied Japan, in the aftermath of Enola Gay...

As a comment on marriage: women are regarded as a commodity...expected to obey tradition and duty.

The sentiment is sickeningly sweet, the irksome gentility will have you barfing into a bucket in next to no time.


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Noriko is 27 years old and is still living with her father Somiya, a widower. Noriko just recovered from an illness she developed in the war, and now the important question pops up: when will Noriko start thinking about marriage? Everybody who is important in her life tries to talk her into it: her father, her aunt, a girlfriend. But Noriko doesn't want to get married, she seems extremely happy with her life. She wants to stay with her father to take care of him. After all, she knows best of his manners and peculiarities. But Noriko's aunt doesn't want to give up. She arranges a partner for her and thinks of a plan that will convince Noriko her father can be left alone.

Cast & Characters

Chishu Ryu as Shukichi Somiya;
Setsuko Hara as Noriko Somiya;
Yumeji Tsukioka as Aya Kitagawa;
Haruko Sugimura as Masa Taguchi;
Hohi Aoki as Katsuyoshi;
Jun Usami as Shoichi Hattori;
Kuniko Miyake as Akiko Miwa;
Masao Mishima as Jo Onodera;
Yoshiko Tsubouchi as Kiku;
Yoko Katsuragi as Misako