overdarklord This review also has some mild spoilers for the movie "An autumn afernoon", you have been warned: "Early Summer" is a movie very similar to Ozu's later work "An Autumn Afternoon" which I saw a bit earlier than this movie. Both deal with families that somewhat break up because the daughter of the family is marrying into someone else's family and you see how the family member deal with this situation. While they have a similar theme I ended up really enjoying "An Autumn Afternoon" while I found "Early Summer" rather boring, it had a little bit going on but especially towards the end it became increasingly bland. I think this comparison is very good in showing the interest I get while watching some of ozus movies ("An Autumn Afternoon and "floating weeds") and the boredom I get while watching others (Tokyo stories, late spring). Early summer pretty much falls right in between them. For comparison: An Autumn Afternoon is a movie clearly dedicated to the change the father of the family experiences while considering giving up on his precious daughter who cared for him since his wife died. There are a lot of hints in the movie about the father being fond of the good old times and not wanting to let go on some things. Ultimately all the character who are at first against change have to realize that it is the best for everyone and cannot be avoided and everyone matures in that regards towards the end of the movie. I also find nice that the daughter could not marry the man she actually wanted to marry. You know, not everyone could choose back then and this gives you a bit of a touch of realism. The movie also had a bunch of character with actual charisma. You had the friend of the father who always boasted about how nice it is to have a wife that is 20-30 years younger than he is. You have the old teacher who has a little bit of a drinking problem. You got the wife of the son who is always snapping and complaining about money. "Early Summer" on the other hand has very little of that. The focus of the story is not the old father who loses his daughter but the daughter, and the movie doesn't really have a message it tries to tell by hinting at its audience. There is no sense of maturing from any of the characters and the ending felt rather abrupt. You also don't have the magnitude of charismatic and interesting characters. The only few character interaction I found rather special where the conversations between the old school friends of the main character, some of whom are married and some of whom aren't and you got a little bit of a fighting there. So overall I would say that Ozu definitely became a better filmmaker towards the end of his life, with "An Autumn Afternoon" probably being the best of his movies. His very similar early version of the same idea named "Early summer" is a nice watch but resembles rather his earlier movies (Tokyo Story and Late spring) rather than the complex take on family life that is given in his later work. Also an Autumn Afternoon had better actors with Shima Iwashita and Marko Okada being excellent actors who establish themselves outside of Ozus movies while Setsuko Hara most famous works all seem to have centred around Ozu and I don't find her to be that good to be honest.

Antonius Block 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.

princebansal1982 Another masterpiece from Yasujhiro Ozu. Setusko Hara reprises her role as Noriko who everybody wants to marry. I loved her in this movie. Though she is beautiful, it is not her beauty that is her main attraction, but her smile and her warmth and an inherent goodness of heart that you can sense in her. Ozu's films are character driven and Noriko is a wonderful character. Just like something from Capra's films, but understated and unaware of her own qualities.The movie has an undercurrent of humor running throughout which is very refreshing. The scene where Noriko is conversing with her friends while having tea is my favorite scene. I don't understand Japanese but just the way how everybody was making jibes at each other, I didn't needed to understand what they were conveying.

Psychojon I watch a lot of films; it is part of my work. But I only recently stumbled across those of Ozu. I've now seen nine or ten and I've been blown away. Ozu was a genius. He did something that I've not seen any other director do; he captures the most important moments in people's lives in a realistic fashion. There is a real fly-on-the-wall character to his films, yet he does this in such a way that you genuinely feel like you are intruding on private and personal moments. There are none of the acting-up for the camera or false histrionics that we've got so used to in documentaries. In fact, these are peaceful, superficially mundane stories that somehow get to the very core of humanity. Tokyo Story and Late Spring are excellent films, but to my eyes Early Summer is the greatest. I have never seen such a human dilemma (a daughter leaves home leaving her parents both disappointed that they will no longer have her company and yet proud and relieved that she is getting on with her life) so beautifully and poignantly portrayed. If push comes to shove, I might say that this is the greatest film of all-time.