Movies We've Just Watched discussion
January 2009: Ozu
>
The End of Summer (Yasujiro Ozu, 1961)
date
newest »



instant watch much be nice though....like going to the video store - you bring it home without leaving home.



This captivating film from Ozu’s late period could be classified as a romantic comedy with dramatic overtones. Several stories are woven into the narrative, which focuses mainly on two central romantic relationships. Setsuko Hara leads a large cast of Ozu regulars in a script brimming with surprises and unforgettable images.
Yasujiro Ozu started making films in the late 1920s and continued until his death in the early 1960s but few of his movies are in color. The End of Summer boasts a symphony of rich (but highly controlled) hues from beginning to end. The classic transition scenes created in his films to shuffle the viewer from place to place present a beautiful kind of geometric folk art to frame the characters. The bold tones in The End of Summer reflect the passions and heated concerns coursing through the cast.
The End of Summer was shot in Osaka and has a different feel than the director’s urban classics made in Tokyo. Cicadas pulse throughout, offering up a chorus of friction. A father’s children chide him for seeing his old mistress; a young couple falls slowly in love; another daughter dates an American; daughters question the validity of their father’s parentage; boys toss stones into the current; the love between three sisters courses the film like a river, repeatedly displayed throughout to represent the stream of life. This is Ozu the mad chronicler at his finest.