Late Autumn

Here Ozu remakes his own film. Late Spring had a widowed father and a daughter who did not want to marry, with Setsuko Hara as the daughter. Eleven years later the same structure returns, but Hara is now the mother. The audience sees the same face on the other side of the story. There is one further difference: Late Spring was black and white, this is in colour. The widowed Akiko is trying to get her daughter Ayako married. Three friends of her late husband help; all three mean well, all three make it worse, and all three have a private interest in Akiko. The tone is considered the lightest of Ozu's late work. There are jokes and innuendo, and the sense of loss sits further back than usual. Yōko Tsukasa plays the daughter and Mariko Okada her friend. Who it is for: viewers who like Ozu's fixed camera, low angle and domestic negotiation. Who it is not for: anyone wanting incident. Across two hours nobody goes anywhere; everything happens in living rooms and restaurants, in conversation.