Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Ozu's Late Autumn: Youth, Love and Happiness
Late Autumn, Yasujiro Ozu's 1960 film doesn't begin with a shot of a train as several of his later films do, but with a radio tower surrounded by trees. (A comment that there is something in the air or airwaves--Change, perhaps?) and action quickly shifts to the interior of a temple. Inside preparations are under way for a memorial service for an old Miwa, whose businessman. Old friends have come and the family, most importantly, Miwa's widow and only daughter have arrived. During the ceremony, another old friend arrives, Mamiya, portrayed by Shin Saburi, who reminds me of Mishima in his non-historic Kurosawa roles or even a Breezy and Network era William Holden.
First surprise in this film is how the post memorial drink gathering where the three old school friends, all successful now in business or education, Miwa's widow, Akiko, and daughter, Ayako. They are quite striking together (Kind of like a nonsinging, Japanese version of the Judds), the impact they have on Miwa's old friends is a kind of mutual infatuation for two of them, Taguchi and Mamiya, feelings are further muddied because they were both infatuated with Akiko, back in the day.
Mamiya, primarily works (first with Akiko) on trying to get young Ayako married. The young in modern Japan are moving towards finding their mate by means of heart and infatuation, not old school arranged marriages. The issue is further complicated because Ayako obviously enjoys living with her mother and feels an obligation to her father's memory, although the relationship with Goto, who was a Mamiya set up, seems to be evolving quite nicely. A third friend of the late Miwa's college professor Hirayama, a widower, is looked upon by the three as an alternative to marry mother Akiko, thus leading the way.
Everything turned into a big fat mess when Mamiya promotes the idea of Hirayama getting married Ayaka to, without Akiko who is totally in the dark about plans to become Mrs. Hirayama. Ayako's friend Yuriko in a spritely assertive and engaging way takes all three of Miwa's friends to task. Her determination to make things right and her trickery to lead the three to eat and drink in her mother's restaurant leads one of them to admit "We're no match for the girls these days. They are really something"
Ozu seems to celebrate these young women of the late fifties and early sixties. They have freewill and strong will. They back into traditional restaurants out of their high heels most assuredly. They are a sign of changing times like the English that appears on signs and advertisements in his Tokyo.
Things work out halfway to the expectations of the late Miwa's friends At the end resolution, they treat the meddling and plotting as a kind of fun lark. Towards the end of the film Mamiya concludes with a line that rings true for this study by Ozu and the spirit of his films in general: "You know it's people who complicate life. Life itself is surprisingly simple."
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:55 PM
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