CINEMATIC Review

LATE SPRING   ****

Yasujiro Ozu

1949

IDEA:   A young woman living with her widowed father is endlessly talked into marriage, but neither one can muster up the courage to leave the other.

BLURB:   A harmonious, classically restrained family drama centering on the generational conflict between an aging professor and his daughter, and the compromises they must make in order to fulfill the status quo of their changing world. Gracefully understated and heartrending, acutely conveying the turning tide of postwar Japan and its traditional values at combat with westernized ethics. Ozu sublimely navigates the unspoken tension between family members, rhythmically cutting to quiet exterior shots and juxtaposing them with the graphical shapes of indoor hallways. Warm, subtle, with the least amount of sensationalism possible, the film is almost Zen-like in its spareness.