The End of Summer

Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1961, 103 minutes

This film tells the story of the Kohayagawa family, focusing predominantly on two unmarried sisters as the symbolic representation of new and old Japan. Noriko, the youngest sister is unmarried, works in an office and adopts western dress. Akiko, the elder sister is widowed, works as an art gallery attendant and dresses in traditional kimono. Both sisters are considering marriage to please their elderly father. When he falls ill, the sisters begin to consider the place of marriage in their lives.

The plot's quiet family drama is almost secondary to Ozu's breathtaking visual contemplation of the landscape, a landscape that reflects the changing culture of Japan in the 1960s. Admirers of Alfred Hitchcock and Wong Kar-Wai will take pleasure in the opening bar scene in Osaka where a businessman chats to a waitress. She wears the kind of dress my mother wore as a girl: a pink and white floral print, with a boat neckline and a crinoline skirt, paired with pearls and higheels. When Akiko enters the bar a short time later, her sleek summer kimono forms a subtle contrast the waitress's dress.In another scene in a cafe, the pale walls and tatami floors are underscored by the presence of a bright red Coke sign in the far left corner. What Ozu shows us is the slow inflitration of the West, inflected through the careful selection of objects and backdrop.

This film also brilliantly evokes the season of its title. Shots absent of people, but filled with the humming of cicadas, evoke the scent of apple blossom and lilac, the taste of iced green tea, and the texture of bamboo, paper and cotton. This is a film where lives are filled with simple pleasures, and the quality and satisfaction of these pleasures is so palpable that we almost don't even notice that underneathe the surface, Akiko and Noriko are contemplating rather serious breaks with tradition.

Review by Sarah Artt
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2005