Review of An Autumn Afternoon (1962) by Jason F — 24 May 2009

An Autumn Afternoon is Ozu's final masterpiece and it showcases all his talent as a director in top form.

True, its not as great as Tokyo Story or any of his other major films but it does contain more comedy and it doesn't make you cry at the end.

What I like about Autumn Afternoon is what I like about all Ozu films. Ozu shows people are they really are. He doesn't make characters out to be larger than life or lie to the audience to hide a character's bad habit; he simply shows real life.

With all the Hollywood type special effects and non-stop action movies, its refreshing to take a look at a director like Ozu who can slow everything down and write screenplays that depict honest real life characters that are carefully constructed.

In this film, we see Ryu Chishu, as a good father. He hasn't even thought of his daughter getting too old on the vine for marriage, until his drinking buddies and old school chums convince him that one day his daughter will become to old and time is running out.

Iwashita Shima plays the daughter who looks after her widowed father and hasn't thought much of marriage either.

Spliced between dramatic, touching scenes of Ryu trying to convince Iwashita to find a husband and of Iwashita's attempts to find a man she likes are comedic interludes that take some of the weight off the serious subject matter. It is in the drinking scenes at the restuarants and bars that the characters truly revel themself and offer much insight.

Some of the important scenes are when Ryu and his buddy escort a happily intoxicated Sakuma, The 'Gourd' back home. When his daughter scolds him in front of the men inside his home, Ryu becomes determined to see his daughter married off so he won't be placed in that situation.

As with every good Ozu movie, you don't want the film to end because you get caught up in all the wonderful characters and you want to know what is going to happen to each one long after the film is over.

This is a great Ozu film that should be added to anyone's short list of great films.

I watched it yesterday, on Sunday afternoon. I was just thinking that Sunday afternoon is the right time to watch Ozu because they both go together. This is also my first time seeing an Ozu film in color and the use of his favorite color, red, adds a nice detail.