Art House: Yasujiro Ozu's Late Spring is the purest distillation of his style
The titles are similar — ; ; ; ; — as are the motifs found in Yasujiro Ozu's oeuvre from the late 1940s until his death in 1963. Yet, like Monet's water lilies or Van Gogh's haystacks, there is brilliant variety in the artist's exploration of his subjects, and the results are mesmerising and eternally fresh.
The first in Ozu's post-second world war "seasonal" family sagas, is also considered by many aficionados to be the purest distillation of the director's sensibility.
Although the family unit had long been a major element in Ozu's work, this 1949 film was the first to highlight the bond between father and daughter. is significant for being the first of six Ozu films to showcase the luminous Setsuko Hara, who stars alongside another key component of Ozu's filmography — actor Chishu Ryu (left with Hara), who appeared in two dozen Ozu movies, more than any other performer.
In watching the relationship between widowed professor Shukichi Somiya (Ryu) and only daughter Noriko (Hara), one is struck by the utter naturalness of their interplay, a reflection of Ozu's skill at assembling a team totally compatible with his vision. They are a perfect fit in their tailor-made roles, with Noriko happy to stay at home and care for dad, while he conspires to marry her off before spinsterhood sets in. It is the subtlety and nuance with which Ozu imbues his themes that transforms this into a narrative of engrossing interest and deeply affecting humanity.
It may be a cliché to refer to Ozu as the most "Japanese" of directors, but presents plenty of evidence of its validity from the first sequence, which unfolds during a tea ceremony. Yet the movie also expresses the cultural inroads made by the American occupation then in progress, from the prominent placement of a Coca-Cola sign to Noriko's intended suitor being described as resembling Gary Cooper.
For all its "Japanese-ness", a Noh sequence is a tribute to Ernst Lubitsch, that most continental of Hollywood auteurs and an Ozu favourite; his (released in Japan in 1931) contains a comic operetta segment that is unexpectedly a spiritual cousin to Ozu's Noh. It is just one example of 's ability to resonate with audiences across national and generational boundaries.
