Showing posts with label Kuniko Miyake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kuniko Miyake. Show all posts

Monday, May 30, 2016

LATE SPRING (1949)

"...marriage is life's graveyard."

When LATE SPRING begins, the 27 year-old Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is living at home with her widowed father Shukichi Somiya (Chishu Ryu).  She is very happy.  She's constantly smiling and laughing.  She couldn't possibly be any happier than she already is.  Her father is happy also.  The housekeeper is happy.  Hell, even the camera is happy!  For a Ozu film the camera moves around a lot and the editing is quicker than usual.  LATE SPRING starts off as one of the liveliest Ozu films I've ever seen.  It's a joy.  Then...the pressures of "tradition" start to show their ugly head and talk of Noriko getting married starts.  Because of this you might mistakenly think LATE SPRING would be fun like EARLY SUMMER, but you would be wrong.  If anything thing, EARLY SUMMER is the "happy" version of this story and LATE SPRING is the "unhappy" version.

When the marriage talk starts, Noriko simply laughs it off like she does in EARLY SUMMER (Setsuko's character was also named Noriko in EARLY SUMMER), but this time around the family is more adamant and once the pressure begins to build...the joy leaves out of Noriko, out of her father and even out of the camera.  Where there was once movement, smiles and laughter there is now only long static shots, sadness and defeat.

EARLY SUMMER is one of my favorite movies of all time and I watch it a few times a year, but LATE SPRING on the other hand, (while it is expertly made and a beautiful film to look at) is just too damn depressing to watch often.  I feel so sorry for Noriko and her father.  You can tell that they are both heartbroken at the end.  It's just too sad.  Not sad in a UMBERTO D. way, but more like in a THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN way: seeing her, at the beginning of the film, totally happy and content and then being forced to throw it all away simply to satisfy social expectations, but even worse because this was an arranged marriage!

I guess all of this just goes to show how talented everybody involved with this movie was.  Highly recommended.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

EARLY SUMMER (1951)

Twenty-eight year-old Noriko lives in a nice house with her extended family which includes her mother and father, her brother, his wife and their two children.  Their days are totally normal: school, work, household chores, enjoying each others company.  It's pretty much a perfect life, but still her family and friends are worried about Noriko not being able to find a suitable husband.  Noriko's not worried though.  She's very happy in her current situation and doesn't seem to care if she ever gets married.

That is a very simplified version of the story, but unfortunately I have a very simplified brain.  I would love to be able to write long elegant paragraphs filled with beautiful sentences in the style of Flannery O'Connor or John Steinbeck that would create a tear in the corner of your eye, but sadly my little-bitty brain just can't do it.  So instead I'll simply say that EARLY SUMMER is one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.  In every aspect it is perfect and I feel blessed that I have been able to enjoy it so many times over the years.

My highest recommendation.