Goddamn, Yasuhjiro Ozu’s great. Thus my first thought whilst taking in the last few moments of the Japanese film master’s last completed film, 1962’s An Autumn Afternoon (Sanma No Aj -- which, according to online sources, translates as The Taste Of Mackerel — a feeling Ozu reputedly wanted to evoke with this film). Yes, many critics have pointed out that it shares many concerns with earlier Ozu fims, and films that are considered greater films, but there is no doubt that this film is a great film, and arguably one of Ozu’s finest. It is in color, and clocks in at 112 minutes in length.
Ostensibly, it follows the path of other Ozu films, in that it deals with a widowed father trying to marry off his daughter, and the fact that this act will likely leave him lonely. Yet, An Autumn Afternoon differs from the earlier takes on this subject in that its main focus is not on the emotions of the daughter, dealing with the guilt over leaving her father (as in 1949’s Late Spring or 1951’s Early Summer), but instead focuses on the father’s coming to terms with having to let his daughter go, for her good, if not his own.
Naturally, the father of this film, Shuhei Hirayama, a typical Japanese salaryman of the era, is played by the same actor who portrayed fathers in other Ozu classics, Chishu Ryu. Ryu has often been faulted as an actor — even Ozu saying that he’s no great shakes, but merely serves Ozu’s purposes, yet this is really short selling all the fine performances Ryu has given in Ozu’s stock company of players. He is, in fact, the most durable and recognizable actor that Ozu ever worked with, even more so than the great Setsuko Hara, who does not appear in An Autumn Afternoon. He is also a damned good actor, as he can subtly portray shifts in mood with the raising of an eyebrow, the inflection of a grunt, or the slight difference of a drunken stagger.
Hirayama is at first indifferent to his daughter’s plight, until work colleagues, especially his old school friend, Kawai (Nobuo Nakamura), urge him to make the marrying off the 24-year-old Michiko (Shima Iwashima) a top priority. In fact, a friend of his already has plans to get the ball rolling, yet Hirayama is not enthused.
Partly, this is selfishness, as, since her mother’s death, Michiko has taken care of household chores, and provided for her father and younger brother Kazuo (Shinichirô Mikami). She seems to disdain the very idea of marriage.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments