Late Spring Film Analysis

Late Spring (晩春 Banshun) is a Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu in 1949. This was the first film from where my journey and introduction to Japanese cinematography has begun. Ozu is well known for his contribution in cinematography as a director.The idea of family, marriage and especially the relationships between the generations, are very popular themes in Ozu's work. The most lauded film is ''Late Spring'' , which has been called "one of the most perfect, most complete, and most successful studies of character ever achieved in Japanese cinema. (Richie Donald ,1974) Although he is well known for the technical style and innovation of his films as for the narrative content, that is why I would like to discover a narrative and characterization

Noriko is in her mid-20s; in Japan in 1949, a single woman that old is approaching the end of her shelf life. His sister warns the professor to push his daughter to get married or after his death she will be alone without someone to take care of her. She pushes him and repeats the same thing again and again until the professor reluctantly agrees. When his daughter refuses to marry someone , her aunt tells her that her father is also going to remarry. Hearing which the character totally changes her behavior. She becomes very sad, her face is not expressing anything except the pain, which can be explained as she does not expect such act from her beloved father with whom she shared the same lost of lovely mother and wife and realizing that she was not enough for him to live happy as well as the fact that it was not her father who told her the news. A couple of days her father was receiving a very cold attitude but did not ask anything. Surely, he knew what conversation his sister had with his daughter, and maybe he was not asking any questions as he could not lie to her. Yes, the news she heard was a lie, but he was ready to sacrifice his own comfort for his daughter’s future. This shows how much they love and care each

«“Will you marry?” Noriko asks him. “Um,” he says, with the slightest nod. She asks him three or four different ways. “Um.” Finally, “that woman we saw today?” “Um.” He defends arranged marriages: “Your mother wasn’t happy at first. I found her weeping in the kitchen many times.”» (Kazuo Hirotsu, 1949). Not the best argument for a father trying to convince his daughter to marry. This shows his inexperience of raising a female child without mother and knowledge of how to talk with her about that kind of things, so maybe that is why he agreed with his sister to force Noriko to marry as she as a woman surely knows what is good for his daughter. The professor’s decision is often described as his “sacrifice” of her. And so it is, but not one he wants to make. Nor does she want to leave. “I love helping you,” she says, “Marriage wouldn’t make me any happier. You can remarry, but I want to be at your side.” She has a strong disgust which is revealed in her bad feelings about remarriage. She wants to stay safe in her home with her father,