"Late Spring" from Ozu

Now here is a really nice movie from Ozu, telling us about the states of mind of a young woman and her father, who both face the dilemma represented by her coming marriage.

It's like any Ozu movie, it's refreshing , well observed, and all the little details of Japanese life, with its rites and tiny habits, are presented in beautiful and luminous shots. The actors are enthusiastic enough and it shows almost too much, at least during the first half of the movie, where the acting is rather heavy-handed. (Well No theatre is never very far...)

But this heavy acting really takes off when emotion at last encompasses the movie with the decision of the father to marry his daughter. It is with lots of subtlety and compassion that Ozu introduces us to the anguish of the young woman, in the grip of tradition. In terms of directing, it is really something, i must say. The actors float from one interior scene to the next, each moment bringing its problematics and rites... A well balanced judgeemnt act (point of view of the adults, of youth,tradition versus modernity) of this initiation ritual represented by arranged marriage for generations of Japanese people.

One will note the "romantic" scene of the bike on the beach, which should have brought about the liberation of feelings, but instead brings emprisonment for the youg woman. Ironical and interesting. The ending will be utterly moving, as one can expect.
So i recommand it, folks, with a trace of caution, because of a certain heaviness in the initial exposition, which thankfully evolves into true emotion.