Higanbana

It's nice to see Ozu championing emotional freedom again after the misery of Tokyo Twilight, and to see him resorting to comedy again since he's damn good at bringing the quiet humor of real life to the screen.

A lighter and more humorous touch from Ozu, though the action remains grounded in a serious familial dispute. The perspective here on aging and family dynamics is so refreshing, in large part because Ozu refuses to pass judgment on any of his main characters. Instead, the film presents each of them with dignity, allowing the viewers to appreciate their common humanity. And, oh, that poetry recitation--so well-placed and so meaningful as the characters see more clearly beyond themselves.

Beautiful scenes of acceptance. Ozu is more subversive every time you watch him.

Contemporary audiences may see this as the story of a stubborn father gradually reconciling himself to generational progress. But to do so is to miss that all the signs of his patriarchal power are empty gestures and all his refusals futile: power is largely a question of surfaces; what determines events is, more subtly, control. In that, the film could be seen as a lost opportunity, at the dawn of the 1960s, to understand social relations as something other than simply a power struggle.

Control=existential stability. Watch this Japanese business man finally resign himself to the changing social world around him. Ozu deals with ageing and impending irrelevancy in the most devastating way: by treating it as an inevitable fact of life. In Ozu's world, there is no escaping time, and he offers no consolation to his characters in the vast majority of his films; and he approaches the subject with a sage's wisdom. Not his best work, but pretty damn great nonetheless.

Bar luna

Ozu, now working in brilliant color, returns to form after a string of daring but occasionally unsatisfying offerings. The result is an extremely focused, even rejuvenated, inter-generational drama that has benefited from all of the filmmaker's slight missteps.

Fascinating to see the aging Ozu dealing with changes in society and coming down on the side of the kids. Really seems like it’s going to be like *the* most stereotypical Ozu film at the beginning but then goes to some fun places, especially with Fujiko Yamamoto’s character. And the colour is beautiful! Dude really nailed it on his first try.

Flor do Equinócio estreava há 65 anos no Japão. A gente fica meio borocochô quando ficamos muito tempo longe de Ozu, há tempos não o assistia e quando se faz tem um resplandecer de uma brisa fria num dia tórrido. Box Versátil O Cinema de Ozu.

I found the paradox of the protagonist to be a beautifully logical thematic progression for Ozu, who again explores the ways in which we create obstacles to empathizing with others. Generations, genders, and familial relations. Though the main character is rather passive and stubborn in his own affairs, it's the restraint in which he demonstrates an emotional thawing that makes this tale transcendently heartwarming and without a moment of inauthenticity.

After watching three of his films I think it's time to put a pin in Ozu for a while, as while I enjoy films that were apparently inspired by him I don't get much out of the man himself.

Another nuanced gentle portrayal of family live with young women of marriage age and their parents from Ozu, which is also surprisingly funny at times when seeing through the hypocrisy of the stern patriarch

The acting, pacing and direction were all top notch. The story while nothing new or different had really good pacing and the movie felt like it whizzed by. The only down side to this movie for me was how completely unlikable the main character (Hirayama Wataru) was. In turn Tanaka Kinuyo as the put upon wife was my favorite character.

What a gorgeous film

84.00

Barely interesting.

Star Rating: ★★★★

About a commanding and stubborn father, and his daughter's defiance. Ozu places the story's perspective firmly with this old fashioned patriarch, as he must come to terms with his own aging and familial resentment. The passage of time spares no one, but this film's great strength is its sense of care and acceptance, where a more pessimistic filmmaker may find resignation. And so the Old Master of Japanese cinema cements his sympathy for the new generation.

Yasujiro Ozu #4

Hello, stop breathing on my purse

Another gentle Ozu comedy about fathers, daughters, marriage, and the changing mores of Japanese society. This is Ozu's first color film, and it is photographed beautifully.

Absolutely jaw-dropping aesthetic from a director who had already tuned his craft to something basically perfect. Has there been anyone who's made the switch to color so effectively?

Another perfectly fine Ozu film, not a whole lot to say that I haven't said before. Although I'm rarely swept off my feet by Ozu's movies, I have to yet to find one that I truly dislike (I've even considered adding Early Summer and maybe Tokyo Story to my collection). This one doesn't really distinguish itself in any special way, but the color is nice and there's some pretty good humor in it.