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• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Editorial Reviews

Like any of Yasujiro Ozu's best-known films, Early Summer is a marvel of cinematic simplicity, revealing layers of depth through multiple viewings. It may seem at first that Ozu's family tale is too simple, but looks are deceiving, and closer study reveals an intensely structured, highly formalized example of Ozu's transcendental realism, focusing on the dilemma of 28-year-old Noriko (played by the immensely popular Setsuko Hara), whose late-breaking decision to marry sends unexpected shock waves through three generations of her close-knit family. While providing a vivid portrait of liberated womanhood in post-war Japan, this lighthearted yet quietly devastating drama also serves as a gentle study of tradition vs. modernity, and a clash between conformity and independence. It's also a triumph of DVD-as-film-school: As he did for Criterion's release of A Story of Floating Weeds, the distinguished scholar Donald Richie provides an eloquent full-length commentary as valuable as the film itself, thoroughly exploring the purpose of Ozu's low-angle style, the influence of Ernst Lubitsch, the importance of Setsuko as a role model for Japanese girls, stylistic comparison to Jane Austen's fiction, and a variety of other relevant topics. "Ozu's Films from Behind the Scenes" gathers three of Ozu's longtime collaborators for affectionate reminiscence, and mini-essays by Ozu expert David Bordwell and long-time Ozu admirer Jim Jarmusch lend further appreciation from critical and personal perspectives. This is Criterion's fifth Ozu release on DVD, and like the others, it's highly recommended. --Jeff Shannon

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Portrait of Love and Sacrifice, April 22, 2011

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Bobby Underwood "starlighthotel" (Manly NSW, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: LATE SPRING (NTSC All Region Import) Yasujiro Ozu, Setsuko Hara, Chishu Ryu, Chikage Awashima, and Kuniko Miyake (DVD)

This beautifully mounted film from Yasujiro Ozu is an astounding achievement in simplicity. Using the camera lens like an artist uses a brush, he makes tiny marks on the canvas whose beauty is only fully revealed when we stand back upon its completion, deeply moved by the restful and poignant portrait of family love and sacrifice in front of us. Ozu attains an intimacy on film not reached again until Vietnam's Tran came close, in The Scent of Green Papaya and The Vertical Ray of the Sun, many decades later. The placid beauty and tenderness of Late Spring, however, is unmatched.

Cinematographer Yuharu Atsuta beautifully captures Ozu's minimalist and intimate approach to storytelling. Ozu himself had began his career in silent films as a cameraman, allowing him to speak with elegance through the camera lens; letting it linger on an evocative scene, or a face, creating a narrative of depth and poignancy which required a minimum of dialog. Major events are often alluded to, but rarely shown onscreen, as the director shows the fluidity of life in broader terms, by focusing on family and love. Studying American films in Singapore, he had his own vision as a filmmaker, and his works are among the most Japanese in style and substance. Like Orson Welles, he had sort of a stock company of players who appeared in most of his films. Lovely Setsuko Hara is enchanting as Noriko, giving a beautifully realized and realistic performance as an old-fashioned girl who cares so deeply for her widowed father, she has not married, and moved forward with her own life.

Setsuko became a symbol of the golden era in Japanese cinema thanks to Ozu, though she is perhaps even more revered in America. Her talents were vast, but intertwined so closely with the director, she quit films the same year he passed on, living quietly and without publicity. A placidity is immediately captured in Late Spring, the viewer feeling privy to scenes of intimate family life which intoxicates them, like the warm sake Noriko's father, Shukichi Somiya (Chishu Ryu), drinks in the evening. Noriko is shown to be a lovely and happy girl, full of warmth and humor. Bit by bit, by keeping his camera focused on her, a broader canvas is revealed, however, as if the camera had been pulled back for a long shot. Slowly revealed is the tender portrait of wonderful girl who loves her aging, and often difficult to manage, father. So deep is her love and affection for him, she has sacrificed her own prospects at joining the flowing waters of life reaching Japan's shores. Her father's sister, Masa (Haruko Sugimura), broaches this subject, causing him to consider remarriage, something his 27 year old daughter, finds repugnant.

Arranging for Noriko to meet an eligible man proves painful, as she must be dragged towards living her life by her loving father and pushy aunt. Ozu shows her to be independent and remarkable, while at the same time not dismissive of Japanese tradition. The viewer is left wondering if spring has passed for Noriko, and senses her hurt at her father's intention to remarry, and marry her off, even to a man who 'looks like Gary Cooper'. Many baseball terms are used in this Ozu masterpiece, showing the fascination with the sport still rampant in Japanese society. Noriko is surprised that she likes her suitor, and is encouraged to get married by her good friend, Aya (Yumeji Tsukioka). A quiet conversation full of great wisdom, between a father and daughter, is wonderfully captured by Ozu's camera, and the wedding is set. Their last trip together to Kyoto will reveal a great sacrifice, however, revealed to Aya over sake. Tender and deeply moving is the final shot of Ozu's masterwork, the canvas he has painted on now fully exposed to the light, and visible for all to see.

A beautiful film of great intimacy, showing both love and sacrifice between a daughter and her father, this is a film which lingers in the heart long after it is over. The Criterion edition of this film is the best quality but it can be viewed and enjoyed in less pricey formats for those who simply want to view a work of exquisite art. A lovely film from a fine director, and an excellent example of the less is more school of thought. Beautiful.