Bakushû

There is a great harmony in everything about this film, which has a Japanese family of three generations wondering if it's time for the 28-year-old daughter (Setsuko Hara) to get married, and proposing an opportune match. Director Yasujiro Ozu uses many of his trademarks, both in content (e.g. two rascally little boys adding a cute element) and in style (e.g. with regular use of those shots from the mat, directly into a character's face as he or she speaks). While some of those things and the overall primness of the film threatened to get on my nerves, I have to say, I enjoyed it, and it finished strong.

In the film, Ozu gives us lessons in being gentle, patient, and bearing with the inevitable changes in life, and he does it in a simple way. Hara seems to be constantly smiling and cheery which may seem a little one-dimensional, but she ultimately stands up for herself in her own, non-confrontational way. The conversation she has with her friend, where the two discuss whether a love based on trust and friendship is true love, is deeply meaningful. The conversation she has with her sister-in-law while they're at the beach, the only one Ozu ever used a crane for, and where they talk about sacrifice and living a life without a lot of money, is as well.

The film gradually builds you to these strong late scenes, so if you're less into it early on, I would encourage patience. The subtle way in which a possible marriage is discussed, and not directly by the two involved (being intentionally vague here), is both cute and an insight into the culture. There are also universal, sentimental themes. The mother and father (Chieko Higashiyama and Ichiro Sugai) turn in strong performances, and the scene where they talk about a son who was missing in action in the war is striking. Their posing for a family picture, all smiles and jovial between takes, but then looking solemn before the picture is taken, is fantastic. The father's silence and patience as events in his family unfold culminates eventually in him recognizing that we all wish we could stay together with family members as they are, but that things inevitably change. It's quite beautiful.

I did not know much about Yasujiro Ozu's films prior to seeing Early Summer. I knew he was as big an influence in the West as Akira Kurosawa. It is not difficult to understand Kurosawa's influence since his films were largely influenced by John Ford and his stories were occasionally based on Shakespeare. Ozu, seems to take a quiet and simple approach to the cinematic experience.

"Early Summer" is about a time when families extend and break apart. We are introduced to the Mamiya family, a typical family of 1950's post war Japan, who we see going about their daily life routines. The protagonist is the daughter Noriko, a 28 year old girl whose parents believe is ready to get married. One day, Noriko is recommended a man Takako, who is an associate of her boss. Noriko considers the offer but does not spark much interest. Her parents try to encourage her daughter to marry this man but after learning that Takako is much older, Noriko becomes even more reluctant. One day, their close neighbor Kenkichi, has been offered a job outside of Tokyo and has decided to leave. It is Kenkichi who Noriko suddenly decides to marry. The Mamiya family becomes upset because Kenkichi is not only moving away from home but he is also a widower with a child. The parents soon realize that they will have to accept and nothing will be the same again. The story has a somewhat similar structure to a documentary in that we sometimes feel as though we are witnessing real life as it happens. Much of what occurs throughout the film is not directly connected to the story. There is no surprise or ironic conclusion. Everything seems inevitable and there is no major surprises or conclusions. "Early Summer" helps us think about the essence of selfishness in the Japanese nuclear family. It is uncommon for Japanese families to leave the family because independence is looked down upon. At the same time, it is inevitable that things change for better or for worse. There is a wonderful scene with the grandparents contemplating on Noriko and their lives. "Things couldn't be better" says the grandfather. "Well they could" says the grandmother. The grandfather replies,"please, we must not expect too much from life" This seems to be an important awareness of the film and one that exists between the Mamiya family. Noriko accepts who she's in love with not because she seeked him out but because it occurred when she least expected. She tries to read into her future and accepts that marriage will be difficult. There is another wonderful moment after she has accepted Kenkichi's mother to marry her son, she is seen walking home and passes by her soon to be husband. Their exchange is very subtle and brief and yet we know they are going to spend the rest of their lives together. This scene is presented in an ironic way that helps us to pay close attention to the mundaneness of our lives. These are the moments that help us see the world in better light. Ozu has a great eye for timing, atmosphere and above all, humor. There is nothing pretentious about this film. It is an examination of family unity and the passing transition of marriage.

Ozu's "Early Summer" is a delightful movie to watch, pleasant and light in its story, yet thoughtful and sensitive in a good many respects. It is also a triumph for Ozu's simple-looking but carefully conceived style of film-making, and the material in the story parallels the style in a natural but satisfying manner.

So many of Ozu's movies portray the distinctive characteristics of the Japan of his day, and yet do so in a way that make the characters and their situations seem almost universal. By focusing so much of the running time on repeated daily routines, even the habits and customs unique to its own society become points of identification, since routines are routines, regardless of how they might differ from one time and place to another.

Here, the family relationships among the central characters are fleshed out carefully, so as to create many possibilities in the interactions between the various generations. There is significant screen time given to many different characters, and all of them are worth getting to know. Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is the main character, in that she ties together her family with the characters outside of it, and as the movie proceeds, it is her life that gradually becomes the main focus. Ozu's presentation of the preoccupation that the other characters have with Noriko's unmarried status is both believable and perceptive. Hara is very endearing in the role, and she does very well in portraying her relationships with and her reactions to the other characters.

Given that Ozu deliberately makes very sparing use of camera movement and similar techniques, in favor of simple but carefully composed settings that emphasize the characters themselves, there is a nice parallel in the way that the story proceeds and the main questions are resolved. The characters' heartfelt decisions are shown to be more worthwhile than meticulous arrangements. As tends to happen with his films, a pleasing pattern with a ring of truth to it emerges, almost unexpectedly. It's enjoyable to watch, and an admirable display of cinematic skill.

There are few lovers of serious cinema who do not consider "Tokyo "Story" a masterpiece. I, for one, would be prepared to place it among the "top ten" of all time. When I first saw it on British TV many years ago I was excited by the discovery of a form of cinema unlike any other. In the months that followed I began to experience frustration that no other of Ozu's fairly large output was available. At long last "Ohayu" turned up. I remember thinking it very inconsequential beside "Tokyo Story" but pleasing nonetheless, possibly Ozu not so much having an off-day as a day off. What I found remarkable however was its stylistic affinity to "Tokyo", the absence of camera movement, the prefacing of each dramatic sequence, generally taking place in a domestic interior shot from near-ground level, with two or three shots, often still-life exteriors with background music carried over into the next dialogue scene; in other words a director who is completely true to his own way of seeing things, as instantly recognisable from a single shot as are composers as diverse as Martinu, Rawsthorne and Roy Harris from one bar of their music. It is only recently that I have managed to catch up with five other Ozu films, each a gem in its own way but small in scale. "Early Summer" is a typical example. It deals with the same situation as "Late Spring", that of the pressures on a young woman by her family to get married. Ozu generally explores family relationships which, although hardly dysfunctional, abound in tensions. Here we have an elderly couple living with their doctor son and their unmarried daughter, the son's wife and their two small sons completing the household. An elderly uncle visits early on and neighbours and friends, particularly those of the unmarried daughter make up the rest of the cast played by a company of stock actors that appear in many of Ozu's films. Each generation responds to life in its own way. The elderly couple are disappointed particularly with the younger members of the family. They sit on park benches or in the privacy of their bedroom and sigh that, in spite of everything, things could be much worse and they should be happy with their lot. The middle generation get on with the business of living, often in a blinkered way so that we wonder whether they are aware of the tensions they so often generate. The children are completely selfish little monsters who cut up rough if they don't get their own way, as when they mistake a wrapped loaf of bread that their father brings home, for the model railway accessories they are hoping to receive. There is little in the way of plot other than that of the "Will she? Won't she?" variety. But for the enormous expectations raised by "Tokyo Story", I might well have passed "Early Summer" by. And yet there is a uniqueness and purity of style that somehow draws me back to these simple vignettes of Japanese domestic life again and again. Ozu has often been compared to Jane Austen, but would not a more appropriate analogy be the novels of Ivy Compton-Burnett. Both are the unique minimalists of their respective arts.

There are several repeating themes and symbols in Ozu's movies, especially the three films in his famous trilogy around the Japanese 50s where 'Early Summer' is the second installment. For example the film starts with a seashore shot, with waves hitting the sand in eternity and ends with the image of an endless field and a mountain in the background. There two vibrant images are prelude and ending to a film which superficially can be called a feminist family drama, an apparently banal story of a nice and independent girl in a traditional family under pressure to get married. And yet there is a meaning in the relation between the day-to-day family life and the universal dimension of nature - an almost sacred dimension I would say. Ozu treats family life with the full attention and respect that a great artist approaches big universal themes. For him the family is the basic building block of the Japanese society, and family relations are the fabric of the society. Day to day life is filmed with piety, as in a religious ceremony.

Recurring themes abound in 'Early Summer' and will be easily recognized by those who have seen the first film in the trilogy - 'Late Spring': Ozu's passion for trains. The theater as a component of the spiritual life, and as an institution that enables communication between the characters. No music or just minimalist soundtrack as the minuet track that accompanies the family scenes, enhancing the feelings of joy and ritualism. And of course, we have here again the magnificent Setsuko Hara, with the fragility, dignity and interior light that makes of her the Japanese Ingrid Bergman.

By telling an apparently minimalistic family story Ozu tells here again a story about the Japan he was living in, a country trying to come to terms with itself after an horrific war, defeat and occupation. What strikes at the first sight is the normality - the first few tens of minutes of the film could have happened in any of the Western countries of the period and almost nothing reminds the pressure of history around. And yet, this does exist. The elder parents carry with them the memory of a disappeared son. In a restaurant, at the end of a scene where the characters rejoice in jubilation at memories of their young age and past years, and about how the place remained unchanged a rare (at Ozu) move of camera discovers a wall hidden until then with a poster advertising an American airline. The message is low-key but yet distinct and clear - the victors of the war may have imposed their economic and political structures, but the level of pollution of the day-to-day life is relatively low and has little signification relative to the big picture. Eternal Japan survives, tradition, focus on work, and on family life is the key if this survival.

From a visual point of view 'Early Summer' is an even more sophisticated and beautiful film than 'Late Spring'. Many of the scenes of the interiors of the Japanese houses are magnificent, with a symmetric framing of the space, and successive walls and sliding doors that define the perspective and allow for concurrent movements or dialogs to happen in parallel giving a feeling of complexity in the good sense of the word, and helping actually explain the intrigue and progress it all around. Acting is superb, with some of the actors returning here from previous films of Ozu, who directs their words, silence, and movements with sympathy and deep understanding. Even if some of the dialogs at the end of the film are too explicit and sounded didactic and melodramatic to my contemporary and 'Western' taste, by the time we have gotten there we are already knowing and trusting the characters too well so that we can forgive them for speaking a few wooden language words.

It's a simple and sensible film, and a good introduction for those who start exploring the Ozu universe.