The End of Summer

A masterclass of subtle oppositions: an affable widower more at home with his mistress than his children; a family obsessed with marital bonds who couldn’t be more divided; a celebration of life ending with a death. On the latter, I did not feel a darker edge - maybe a bit of lyrical cynicism, but one in keeping with the themes. As the farmers say, a death is replaced with renewed life; a funeral inspires two women to live authentically, one to marry and one to not. There is life, there.

Although still, in many ways, essentially indistinguishable from other Ozu films, this might very well be my favorite on a purely aesthetic level (so rigorously concise that he's practically "Bresson with smiling", wherein i think it's crucial to address the blurred distinction between his formal rigor and what often gets confused with cultural "niceness" which remains a barrier for some western viewers like myself. That said Ozu has still yet to move me the way Bresson, at his very best, has.)

A lighter Ozu film that's sense of tragedy builds as it nears its conclusion. The father's playful approach to life contrasts strongly with the loss that his absence would create. And though his family depends on him, he spends most of his time looking elsewhere for companionship. Ozu captures these tensions beautifully by focusing on a wide variety of characters within and outside the family. This gives the film breadth, but leaves it feeling a bit more diffuse than we come to expect from Ozu.

Perhaps my favorite Ozu after Tokyo Story. The emotional range of this film is considerable: some earlier scenes are very funny, yet the conclusion is melancholy and elegaic. The use of color is effective here, particularly in the final funeral sequence.

The story moves at a good pace, it's always great to see Hara, and the color photography really enhances Ozu's style. The only thing is it felt pretty much like "Ozu stew", with bits of Early Summer, Late Spring, Floating Weeds and Tokyo Story all thrown together. And each of those films is superior in their simplicity and emotional attachment to the characters. Here, there's just a little too much going on. It's still a lovely film and Ozu's troupe is wonderful as always.

Ozu's light-hearted touch bestows the film with slight comedy and easy pacing, but it may come at the expense of intimacy. I just don't feel very strongly for most of these characters, save for Setsuko Hara and Yoko Tsukasa as the sisters under pressure to marry. Ozu in color is a lovely thing. I don't mean to belittle the meat of the film, but my favorite parts are probably just all the establishing shots and scene transitions.

This isn't Ozu's best, but it's another solid entry in his filmography. It has most of the actors/actresses you'd expect to see in an Ozu, though Ryu only has a cameo in this one. Typical Ozuian themes at work.

It's common for an Ozu film to delay making its thematic focus obvious. Apart from usual fixation on all things intergenerational, this one became clear to me only towards the end - and even now I'm not sure. It seems to acknowledge the ambiguity to all facets of life, informationally and interpersonally. However, in juggling so many components, it was difficult to discern even the familial relations. Ozu insists that the one certainty in life is death; I'm SO glad he didn't retire on this note.

Pretty good but not my favorite Ozu

The end of summer, family and tradition. Ozu appears to be documenting the demise of old Japanese society. Too many plot threads result in a lack of focus and clarity, which decreases our emotional involvement, but there are darker tensions here than most Ozu films, and it ends with an unusually ominous image that is strangely unsettling.

Semana em honra do centenário de Setsuko Hara completado hoje filme #4. Apesar de ter um dos mais belos finais dentre os filmes de Ozu, a excessiva preocupação em fazer casar a Setsuko nos filmes que vi essa semana me deixarem meio com má vontade, felizmente esse não é o foco narrativo principal e isto fica a cargo do patriarca da família e sua busca libertária. Box Versátil O Cinema de Ozu Volume 2.

A lot of time I think about how my friends who are film obsessive like myself are able to discern over a directors oeuvre and see which ones they love and which ones they like HATE and I don't normally have those feelings. I'm usually a very easy to "grade" kinda guy and I think maybe that's the wrong way. But on the other hand how can you even care about anything else but Loving Ozu and the powers he has with a camera. Goat

Picture of a generational shift on the last half of the Showa period.

Looks beautiful and the contrasting images of a modernizing Japan play well with the themes that are treated with the style that's typical for Ozu. However, I didn't find the narrative effective enough for the film to be considered as that special.

The conflict here is a little muted, as if the "New Japan" heralded in the opening shot is now so advanced that nobody is quite sure how to act any longer, except for the central character who remains unaffected by whatever is going on around him, or within him. Doesn't reach the heights of Ozu's best work but still contains many fine elements.

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

Yasujiro Ozu #6

#636

The score is surprisingly melodramatic. All the old tropes, themes, and narrative lines are accounted for but this is a lower-tier Ozu that lacks the playfulness that I love. Things don't get interesting until some startling misdirection regarding the grandfather. It's by no means a bad film (Ozu is never careless or uninspired), but I expected more from the old master.

611

808

Ozu in colour is nice and the acting is solid as always. The film feels a little too full, with a lot of plot lines and characters that take a little too much effort to sort out. It's not that it's hard or unrewarding, but it's effort that could be spent thinking about the film's themes.

# 818