Artivels Undescribable Perfection

TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Antonius Block There is a great harmony in everything about this film, which has a Japanese family of three generations wondering if it's time for the 28-year-old daughter (Setsuko Hara) to get married, and proposing an opportune match. Director Yasujiro Ozu uses many of his trademarks, both in content (e.g. two rascally little boys adding a cute element) and in style (e.g. with regular use of those shots from the mat, directly into a character's face as he or she speaks). While some of those things and the overall primness of the film threatened to get on my nerves, I have to say, I enjoyed it, and it finished strong.In the film, Ozu gives us lessons in being gentle, patient, and bearing with the inevitable changes in life, and he does it in a simple way. Hara seems to be constantly smiling and cheery which may seem a little one-dimensional, but she ultimately stands up for herself in her own, non-confrontational way. The conversation she has with her friend, where the two discuss whether a love based on trust and friendship is true love, is deeply meaningful. The conversation she has with her sister-in-law while they're at the beach, the only one Ozu ever used a crane for, and where they talk about sacrifice and living a life without a lot of money, is as well. The film gradually builds you to these strong late scenes, so if you're less into it early on, I would encourage patience. The subtle way in which a possible marriage is discussed, and not directly by the two involved (being intentionally vague here), is both cute and an insight into the culture. There are also universal, sentimental themes. The mother and father (Chieko Higashiyama and Ichiro Sugai) turn in strong performances, and the scene where they talk about a son who was missing in action in the war is striking. Their posing for a family picture, all smiles and jovial between takes, but then looking solemn before the picture is taken, is fantastic. The father's silence and patience as events in his family unfold culminates eventually in him recognizing that we all wish we could stay together with family members as they are, but that things inevitably change. It's quite beautiful.

Harry T. Yung After "Tokyo Story", the undebated Ozu Yasujiro top favorite, if his devotees are to name a few others, "Early Summer" would almost certainly make the short list. With as many as 19 characters in total and generously endowed with light humour, it is among the most accessible of Ozu's work. And yet, beyond the easily identified Ozu hallmark of family story, there is another layer which the auteur himself intimated as "deep matters as reincarnation and mutability". That is why, he added, "this film was one of the most demanding work I've done in years".I am not going to pretend to be able to talk intelligently about the deeper aspect and would rather dwell on the more earthy level, Ozu's consistent endeavor to depict post-war Japan, under ever increasing Western influence which often challenges Japan's traditional value of placing the family ahead of everything and anything else. One manifestation is a woman's free choice in marriage.The plot is simplicity crystalized, surrounding the daily lives of a suburban family of three generations: elderly grandparents, middle-class (medical doctor) couple, two young boys, plus the doctor's 28-year-old sister Noriko. Unlike many contemporary western films of dysfunctional families, this family is nowhere near being so. Still, there are tension and pressure. One aspect that Ozu has taken some pains to bring across to the audience is that the little guys are spoil rotten, with a totally indulgent grandfather and not-too-inclined-to-discipline father.More central is the theme of a woman past the ripe age for marrying. While the family members are all concerned, Noriko is unperturbed, "I can easily get married any time I wish. It's just that I don't want to get married at the moment". Not bragging: she has good looks, charming personality and graceful intelligence. By the way it would be relevant to mention here that the relationship between the sisters-in-laws is heartwarmingly affectionate. There is one scene by the seaside towards the end of the film that many critics love to cite: Fumiko (the doctor's wife and the unruly kids' mother) asking, in caring concern, if Noriko is sure about her decision. When Noriko reassures her that she is, the two women stroll on the beach together, shoes in hand, in a languidly composed scene that radiates warmth and affection. Also must be mentioned is one other character that never appears in person, the elderly couple's second son who died in war.While there are subplots such as an ageing grand-uncle's visit and the girls' alumni divided into two opposing groups, the married and unmarried, the main storyline (duly noting that Ozu's emphasis that this film is not so much about story as about ideas) is Noriko marriage. Her matchmaking enthusiast of a boss suggests a very eligible fortyish friend and her entire family beam with the prospect. The final outcome comes as a surprise, certainly to the family, and perhaps even a little to Noriko herself. A neighbor and childhood friend to the brothers and sister, Kenkichi, is now is also a medical man, as well as the surviving brother's colleague. But he has been a closer friend to the deceased brother, and had actually received a letter from the battlefield with a bunch of ears of grain included in the envelope, he intimated to Noriko. When Kenkicki receives a promotion that will take him away for three years, he convinces his reluctant mother to go with him. In a farewell visit in her house, Kenkicki's mother yields to a spontaneous impulse to tell Noriko how she wished that the latter could be married to her widower son. With a similarly spontaneous impulse, Noriko says yes, which brings uncontrollable tears of happiness to the mother's eyes. But this is not just impulse on Noriko's part. Perhaps she has been treating Kenkicki like a brother, but in the depth of her heart, she knows that this man whom she has known since childhood will give her the sense of security she needs from someone she is going to spend the rest of her life with. Happiness she can count on in a life with Kenkicki, even if perhaps not ecstasy.This is essentially what "happens" in the film. As mentioned, I wouldn't pretend to have grasped the subtleties of this film. One a more worldly level, in addition to disappointment with the less-than-desirable marriage (Kenkicki, although a professional, is a far cry from being affluent; he also has a young daughter from the deceased first wife), the family, especially the elderly couple, lament the breakup of the family, inevitable as it is. On the metaphysical plane, viewers would have different private connections and empathies with the rich arrays of motifs and symbols: a rising balloon finally reduced to a tiny dot, ears of wheat populating the entire screen, railroad crossing gate coming down just a grandfather is about to cross, the kids' obsession with toy train sets, and so on. Of particular significance is the second son who died in the battlefield. While never appearing on screen, this character has a pivotal role, perhaps even instrumental to bringing about the key plot element, the marriage of Noriko and Kenkicki.

Cosmoeticadotcom Early Summer (Bakushû) is the middle entry in what has been called director Yasujiro Ozu's Noriko Trilogy (bookended by Late Spring and Tokyo Story). All three films feature women named Noriko (all played by Setsuko Hara), who are without husbands, and embroiled in family dramas. The names of many of the other major characters recur in the trilogy, as well, which gives the films a feeling of almost being alternate world versions of each other- ala the way comic books have 'canonical' superhero tales, and those set in alternate universes. Released in 1951, the 124 minute black and white film was written by Ozu and his co-writer Kôgo Noda, and is every bit as great a film as its two more celebrated companion pieces. The film featured many of Ozu's actors from the two other films, and in many ways is a variation on the narrative of Late Spring, which revolves around the family plotting to marry off the 'old maid' Noriko. Naturally, a suspension of disbelief is needed to believe that a character played by Hara- Japan's mid-Twentieth Century answer to Julia Roberts, aka 'the girl next door,' would have any trouble finding male companionship. And all of the trilogy films are predicated on the changing role of the Japanese family in the postwar world, where the ideas of giri (duty) and ninjo (emotion) come into conflict. The basics of the narrative follow the tri-generational Mamiya family, who all share a suburban Tokyo home. The oldest generation is wary of change, but accepts it. The middle generation takes it or leaves it, and the youngest generation are just self-centered brats. There are the mother and father, Shukichi and Shige (played by Ichirô Sugai and Chieko Higashiyama); their doctor son Koichi (Chishu Ryu), his wife Fumiko (Kuniko Miyake) and their two bratty sons, the older Minoru (Zen Murase)- about eight or nine, and the younger Isamu (Isao Shirosawa)- about four or five; and the parents' daughter, Noriko. Another son, never seen in the film, Shoji, died in World War Two, and the parents still lament and feel his absence. A missing member of the family is another Ozu standby. All of the family members share the expense of the household, and Noriko, who is twenty-eight, feels in no great hurry to marry. Yet, the bulk of the film is not devoted to this pursuit, but rather the exposition of individual character through small scenes that do not relate directly to the plot. Ozu often eschewed plot driven tales' heavyhandedness in favor of an anecdotal style that allowed things to emerge as a tale more organically, or naturally, without the contrivances that often occur in film….Ozu's films rise or fall on their little moments, when people do little things. There are scenes where the grandfather cuts Isamu's toenails, or when he tries to bribe Isamu into saying he loves him. He does it four times, but when grandpa stops bribing him Isamu gets snotty and says he hates the old man. Then the two brothers show their disappointment when Koichi comes home with a package they assume are toy train tracks. When they find out it's bread, call their father a liar, and kick the bread till the package breaks, Koichi spanks Minoru, and scolds him for abusing food- a no-no in a nation where food was still scarce after the war. Then there's a scene when the adults eat cake, and hide it from the boys, lest have to share it with them. These are the prosaic moments which aid in contrasting the greater moments. The very fact that so few other filmmakers include such 'down' dramatic times, which are nevertheless fascinating, goes a long way in explaining the empyreal heights Ozu reaches in his films.Early Summer is an unjustly neglected classic, and a great film, every bit the equal of its two more celebrated cousins in the Noriko Trilogy, which takes its place alongside Ingmar Bergman's Spider Trilogy, Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Alienation Trilogy, and Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors Trilogy as one of the great accomplishments of cinema. In fact, it is probably the best of the trilogies mentioned, for it is the only one where all three films that comprise it are unequivocally great films. While it's great to be in good company, to rise above that company is even better. Ozu does, no matter where or when you watch his films.

MartinHafer This is a lovingly directed and acted movie. It's obvious that someone cared when they made this movie. However, while these quality elements are there, I found the movie to be very dull and SOME of the characters inexplicably annoying. Perhaps I am one of the only people who became irritated by how obnoxious the two little boys were in the movie and how incredibly over-indulgent the family was. When the father FINALLY yelled at one of the brats, the jerks ran away and everyone scolded the father. I DON'T like to be around brats in my own life if I can help it, and watching brats in a movie is very unsatisfying for me. Am I the only one who wanted to see these two kids smacked?! Apart from this visceral reaction, I was amazed how LITTLE I reacted to everyone else in the film. I just found myself bored.This film was followed up two years later with Tokyo Story. While many of the same story elements recur in the second film (a sense of alienation, spoiled kids, parents assessing and re-assessing that things have gone well despite a few setbacks, etc.), the overall story is just more compelling and interesting.