Primavera precoz

The cover of the DVD I rented gave away too much of the plot. I'll try to avoid doing this. The characters in "Early Spring" talk explicitly about jobs and families, so I'll take that as a cue to do the same.

"Early Spring" feels rough -- mostly drab scenery, stark conflicts, and direct behavior. The movie begins with a long stretch of static scene-setting, and then abruptly becomes event-rich. I won't detail the plot, but will say that it and the characters and their actions are completely believable. Nothing is exaggerated or simplified to artificially enhance the drama or make a point.

Many of the characters are recent arrivals to the middle class, thanks to jobs on lower rungs of corporate offices. Business and personal lives are realistically interconnected, which is rare in movies. (Exceptions that come to mind are "The Sopranos," "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," and movies by the Dardenne brothers.) Even when there is a collegial work atmosphere, the jobs can be punishing. The people don't fail to appreciate the benefits, and memories of poverty are fresh enough to keep them from romanticizing the alternatives. Orwell wrote that Dickens pointed to problems of capitalism, but offered no systematic program to fix them, and that the latter may be depth rather than shallowness. You could say the same about Ozu. "Early Spring" ends, not unlike Chekhov's "The Duel" and "Uncle Vanya," with resignation to circumstances, but also rebuilding and a sense of the redemptive value of work.

I have seen quite a few of Yasujiro Ozu's films and while I enjoyed this film, it is not among his best--mostly because of its sluggish pacing. If the film had about 20 minutes cut from it, I really think it would have worked better. Now I am not against long films--provided they merit the additional time. This is one of the few Ozu films I had to force myself to finish, as I found it hard to concentrate on what was occurring--a first for one of his films.

The film is set in a Japanese company where there are lots of lower to mid-level drones doing their jobs. The theme, at times, is that no matter how hard you work and devote yourself to your job, you will one day die...and most likely not appreciated or sufficiently recompensed for your hard work. A depressing view, to be sure, as the film was apparently trying to make a point about alienation during the industrial age (a common theme in Ozu films).

In addition to this theme, there is another plot involving one of the workers having an affair with a co-worker. What actually made this pretty interesting and poignant is that the man's marriage was already in trouble, as their son had died several years ago (as a small child) and the couple became distant in the aftermath. Also interesting is the reaction of the man's co-workers when they think they've discovered the affair (though they still aren't sure). The men all seem to condemn them very quickly and say this is disruptive to the company. BUT, they also later sound incredibly envious of the couple! Additionally, instead of confronting both of them, they only invite in the woman---an interesting double standard.

Overall, the film is typical in style to what you'd expect from an Ozu film. The camera remains stationary and slightly lower than the actors and there are no lens movements. Instead, scenes change by cuts, not by a roving camera. Also, the film's subjects are the countless lower-level white collar workers. Atypical is the film's slow pace (slow even for Ozu) as well as the subject matter--adultery is not something he talked about often.

So is it worth seeing? Well, anything by Ozu is worth seeing as far as I am concerned. Just don't expect quite the same magic and poignant moments like you'd find in such classics as FLOATING WEEDS or LATE SPRING.

Soshun aka Early Spring (Yasujiro OZU, 1956)

This was made after a more than two-year gap following his preceding film, "Tokyo Story" (during which period he spent a lot of time working on a film that was to be directed by Kinuyo Tanaka -- which had become bogged down by all sorts of business politics). Ozu re-visits the world of the young "salaryman" for the first time since the 30s -- and doesn't particularly like what he finds. Ozu looks at the corrosive impact of the transition to a corporation-centered existence on white collar working men.

Shoji Sugiyama (Ryo IKEBE) and Masako (Ckikage AWASHIMA) have been married around 7 or 8 years, but are childless (their only son having died several years earlier). Shoji has shifted his focus to his career and pretty much disregards his wife (or at least takes her very much for granted). After Shoji becomes involved in dalliance with a co-worker, Chiyo, better known as "Goldfish" (Keiko Kishi), Masako decides she's had enough...

This film is one of Ozu's most earnest. While there are some touches of humor (for instance, Shoji's reunion with his army buddies, after which he is followed home by two of them), the overall tone is serious. Kumeko Urabe provides some earthy practicality as Masako's mother (now a noodle shop vendor -- unclear what she did prior to her husband's death years before) and Chishu Ryu (as Shoji's mentor, in business exile in the boondocks -- but not entirely regretting it) provides quasi-paternal guidance.

This film teaches a message Japan largely ignored, business relationships are not an adequate substitute for family ties. With the recent recognition (in Japan) of the phenomenon of "death by overwork", the message of the film might be considered especially timely.

Another character-focused drama from Yasujiro Ozu, and while I don't think it's among his very best, I still found plenty to like here.

It's mainly about a married couple who've been through some tough times, and I believe are in their mid to late 30s. The husband begins feeling interested in a young woman, but it doesn't play out the way you might expect; it feels a whole lot more real, and without melodrama.

I feel like the film as a whole tries to capture those final few confusing years before middle age definitively starts. It's not something I can relate to wholeheartedly, but give me 10 years and a rewatch of this and we'll see.

145 minutes felt a little long, but it's still well-made and has rewarding moments for patient viewers. There are always a couple of sections (sometimes more) in an Ozu film that take me off guard emotionally, often by a character expressing some kind of surprisingly profound personal insight. It's those key scenes or even just seconds of film that always stick in mind, and make Ozu a continually engaging filmmaker to watch, even if his films sometimes feel a little slow and overlong (not always 100% in a bad way!)

Early Spring came between Ozu's incredible masterpieces Tokyo Story and Tokyo Twilight. No surprise then, that it kind of falls flat in places. It's by no means a bad film, but it adds a bit too much complexity, making the focus confusing at points. The film starts as a comment on the salary man. The opening scenes are both funny and sad, as we see the empty streets of Japan gradually fill with men and women in white shirts. They all come together at the subway station, and then we see two men in an office building looking down at the madness below. These are the kind of details one must love about Ozu. It is all represented there on the screen, and without many words we know what is going on. As the film continues we see the workers on their breaks and finally arranging a weekend trip. On this trip is where the real story begins. A young married man named Shoji is attracted to a young girl nicknamed "Goldfish". They are unable to hide their attraction, as their colleagues start spreading rumors and noticing the smiles between the two. Eventually they give into their temptation. It's the effects after this betrayal that are the key focus. The young girl is surprised that she develops emotions, while Shoji is instantly ashamed of himself. His guilt soon grows, and he avoids his wife. Because of this his wife begins to suspect he is cheating on her. The film shows how destructive guilt can be. As Shoji tries to keep his mind off the affair, he ends up forgetting the anniversary of his son's death. The film is too long for its material. There simply isn't enough going on in the middle, and too much at the beginning and end. What it does offer is Ozu's look at relationships without the arrangement of a marriage. Instead, this shows the hard work and commitment a marriage takes. A theme that was handled a lot more competently and economically in his next feature.