FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Yasujiro Ozu - Late Spring 

It works like this: Ozu's movies run free on youtube with english subtitles every now and then. They may be deleted at short notice and reappear shortly afterwards. Like Late Spring. Shukichi, an aging professor and widower, lives alone with his daughter Noriko. She is already in her mid-twenties and still unmarried. In Japan in 1949 this age marks the end of her good life. The professor's sister warns him that Noriko will remain alone after his death. She has to get married. Shukichi resorts to a white lie and claims that he himself will step before the altar once more. It works, Noriko marries. That's all that superficially happens in Late Spring. But in the Tife: anger, passion and - a serious mistake. Father and daughter basically act against their will: They solve their togetherness and will probably be unhappy in the future. Only the aunt who compares Noriko's future husband with a Hollywood star feels satisfied. But we will never get to see him. It is typical for Ozu to withhold the man from us. Ozu is not interested in romance. He shows families whose status quo is changed by outsiders. Like in other Ozu movies Setsuko plays Hara Noriko. She is Japan's biggest film star and Ozu once declared that his films would simply not come about without her. Chishu Ryu, also a wonderful Ozu actor, gives the professor. Late Spring is the beginning of a cycle about families, where the season in the title shows the life section of each character. Did he shoot the same film over and over again? Not at all; his films build on each other and complement each other. The longer I think about it, the sadder Late Spring's story becomes: There is a tension between Noriko's smile and her feelings. The smile often serves as a mask. So Noriko laughs radiantly during an early film scene. Onodera, a friend of the family, tells Noriko that he had married a second time after the death of his wife. Such a marriage is dirty and lazy, Noriko replies. She smiles and feels disgusted. Onodera reminds Shukichi of his duty to marry Noriko and suggests Hattori, the professor's assistant. With him Noriko takes a bike tour to the beach and we can assume that both could fit together. When the father inquires, Noriko laughs and says that Hattori is already engaged. A second rendezvous doesn't take place because Noriko doesn't want to cause any trouble. Ozu leaves the conclusions to us by simply omitting many things. Maybe Noriko would be happy with Hattori? Would he have broken up his engagement? But the real reason is that Noriko doesn't want to leave her father. Noriko will later call this her victim. Now Masa, the aunt (Haruko Sugimura) appears with a new candidate: Satake, who supposedly looks like a Hollywood star. Noriko will correct that, because he looks more like the local electrician. Masa is the one who proposes to the professor the lie of claiming to marry even a younger widow. During a Noh performance, the situation becomes worse. Across the room, the professor nods to the younger widow and replies with a smile. At this moment Noriko loses all interest in the play. Noriko tells her father that she has to go somewhere and avoids staying at his side. Shukichi answers her question whether he will marry now only vaguely, even after three questions. He defends spasmodically arranged marriages by telling Noriko how his own mother often cried secretly in the kitchen - he also did not marry freely. While her aunt prepares everything, Noriko smiles, as always. She looks beautiful and very sad in her wedding dress (we don't see the ceremony itself). The professor admits to himself the greatest lie of his life. In one of the saddest Ozu scenes ever, we see him sitting alone in the kitchen. He peels an apple, but it falls to the ground. He bends his head down in grief. The professor's decision was often described as his victim. That doesn't meet the whole truth, because neither his nor her decision was of her own free will. On the contrary, Noriko confesses that she is happiest at his side while helping him. No marriage could replace that. They have also thought about the supposed incest of father and daughter. I think this is wrong. Noriko has a hidden aversion to sex. She wants to stay safe, forever with her father. Ozu's film is one of the greatest - one of the best two films of all time! Only Early Summer - by Yasujiro Ozu - can stand a comparison. Both films offer shots that seem to have been composed for the camera. The camera holds still, does not move. It films at eye level with the characters, thereby taking on its perspective. Ozu once noted that he always uses the 50mm lens that comes closest to the human eye. Ozu takes the time to show his father and daughter in the household. They come and go, they live together. During a later scene, in which Noriko is to be married, she will pick up some things from the floor and put them on the table. She compulsively captures her domestic happiness once more. So much takes place outside the movie. Implied, but not shown. Noriko smiles, but is unhappy. Shukichi accepts what happens even though he hates it. The aunt seems complacent and relentless. A universal agreement, a firm belief is that women must be married after a certain age. Late Spring shows two people who do not believe that. We see them desperate to make others right - to their own detriment. The credits run, I remain seated. I am still completely caught up in the film, I AM Noriko and the professor!