Review of Late Spring (1949) by Paul T — 30 Apr 2007

With elegance, minimalism, subtlety and intensity, Yasujiro conceived an epic of the everyday, in which everyday events are studied with the same concentration as is accorded to epic events. Yasujiro studies with an almost Zen patience the flow of small things in time. The film contrasts the rapid cultural change as the newer generation was becoming Americanized, with the slow endlessness of classical Japanese life. Between wars and cultural shifts, the everyday still remains the chief domain of art.

Yasujiro makes space, and especially the characters' home a character in its own right, with its moods, subtlety and meaning. The rooms add dramatic meaning to the characters' slow progression. Space is well defined, and the contained spaces of the rooms come together in an organic synergy that completes the characters' states of mind.