Context and Craft: Late Spring (Banshun) 1949
By Barnaby Falck
Country: Japan
Production Company: Shochiku
Year of Release: 1949 (Japan)
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Writer(s): Kogo Noda, Yasujiro Ozu (based off novel Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu
Lead Performers: Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, Haruko Sugimaru
Production Company: Shochiku
Year of Release: 1949 (Japan)
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Writer(s): Kogo Noda, Yasujiro Ozu (based off novel Father and Daughter by Kazuo Hirotsu
Lead Performers: Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, Haruko Sugimaru
Synopsis
Late Spring is a film directed by Yasujiro Ozu and is based off the novel Father and Daughter written by Kazuo Hirotsu. The film depicts the happy relationship between a father (Shukichi Somiya) and daughter (Noriko Somiya) living together in post-war Japan. This happiness is then put into strain when Noriko is forced to consider marriage so that she can “move on” with her life.
The Film
The film was entirely written and shot during the American occupation of Japan that immediately followed the Second World War. During the occupation, the Americans attempted to control and influence (“modernise”) Japanese society, and this can be seen throughout the film and is reflected in perhaps the films biggest theme, “tradition vs modernity” (Sorensen 2009, p.71). The film can be seen as a battle between old ideals (Noriko is a very traditional character and sees concepts like divorce and re-marriage as “un-clean”) and the new ideals that the Americans have brought with them. This theme of “tradition vs modernity” also heavily over-laps with the films other major theme, marriage. (Wood 1998, p.116-117)
The film is shot in such a way that to anyone who has already seen Ozu’s work before would immediately be able to tell who made the film (Bock 1978, p.94). The camera is almost entirely still for the entire film, and all the characters are shot from very low. The film also breaks several “rules” of Hollywood cinema, two noticeable examples of this are how the film breaks the 180 degree rule of conversations, and also how the film is edited exactly how it was originally written, giving the film a certain “flow” that is hard to describe without having seen the film before. (Anderson 1982, p.292)
The film had a fairly easy production, except for one major problem, which was the American board of censorship. The Board had two major issues, and that was the devastation of the war and the mentioning of traditional Japanese ideals. As a result, any mentioning of the Allied bombing was removed and there are lots of mentions and visual examples of the luxuries the occupation has brought with it, and entire parts of the script (such as when Noriko visits her mother’s grave) where entirely removed from the film (the grave scene was removed under the grounds that it promoted Ancestor worship). Ozu did manage to fight back against the censorship in small ways, one example is when a character finds a purse in the street, the Board wanted the character to return it, and this is turned into a small recurring gag in which the character is reminded to return the purse. (Sorensen 2009, p.172)
There were a few initial criticisms of the film when it came out, such as from Japanese critic Asahi Shinbun who claimed “the tempo is not the feeling of the present period”. However the film did become a modest financial hit and has been praised inside and outside of Japan as “one of the most important Japanese films in history”. It has scored 36th place in Kinema Junpo magazines list best Japanese films of all time and has scored 15th in the BFI’s top 100 best films ever made list.
The film has been cited as a major influence for many directors throughout of the world, most notably Daisuke Goto (Lonely Crow Weeps at Dawn) and Claire Denis (35 Shots of Rum).
Late Spring is a film directed by Yasujiro Ozu and is based off the novel Father and Daughter written by Kazuo Hirotsu. The film depicts the happy relationship between a father (Shukichi Somiya) and daughter (Noriko Somiya) living together in post-war Japan. This happiness is then put into strain when Noriko is forced to consider marriage so that she can “move on” with her life.
The Film
The film was entirely written and shot during the American occupation of Japan that immediately followed the Second World War. During the occupation, the Americans attempted to control and influence (“modernise”) Japanese society, and this can be seen throughout the film and is reflected in perhaps the films biggest theme, “tradition vs modernity” (Sorensen 2009, p.71). The film can be seen as a battle between old ideals (Noriko is a very traditional character and sees concepts like divorce and re-marriage as “un-clean”) and the new ideals that the Americans have brought with them. This theme of “tradition vs modernity” also heavily over-laps with the films other major theme, marriage. (Wood 1998, p.116-117)
The film is shot in such a way that to anyone who has already seen Ozu’s work before would immediately be able to tell who made the film (Bock 1978, p.94). The camera is almost entirely still for the entire film, and all the characters are shot from very low. The film also breaks several “rules” of Hollywood cinema, two noticeable examples of this are how the film breaks the 180 degree rule of conversations, and also how the film is edited exactly how it was originally written, giving the film a certain “flow” that is hard to describe without having seen the film before. (Anderson 1982, p.292)
The film had a fairly easy production, except for one major problem, which was the American board of censorship. The Board had two major issues, and that was the devastation of the war and the mentioning of traditional Japanese ideals. As a result, any mentioning of the Allied bombing was removed and there are lots of mentions and visual examples of the luxuries the occupation has brought with it, and entire parts of the script (such as when Noriko visits her mother’s grave) where entirely removed from the film (the grave scene was removed under the grounds that it promoted Ancestor worship). Ozu did manage to fight back against the censorship in small ways, one example is when a character finds a purse in the street, the Board wanted the character to return it, and this is turned into a small recurring gag in which the character is reminded to return the purse. (Sorensen 2009, p.172)
There were a few initial criticisms of the film when it came out, such as from Japanese critic Asahi Shinbun who claimed “the tempo is not the feeling of the present period”. However the film did become a modest financial hit and has been praised inside and outside of Japan as “one of the most important Japanese films in history”. It has scored 36th place in Kinema Junpo magazines list best Japanese films of all time and has scored 15th in the BFI’s top 100 best films ever made list.
The film has been cited as a major influence for many directors throughout of the world, most notably Daisuke Goto (Lonely Crow Weeps at Dawn) and Claire Denis (35 Shots of Rum).
Further Reading
Anderson, Joseph L., and Donald Richie. The Japanese Film: Art and Industry. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1982.)
Bock, Audie. Japanese Film Directors. (New York: Published for the Japan Society by Kodansha International, 1978.)
Sorensen, Lars-Martin. Censorship of Japanese Films during the U.S. Occupation of Japan: The Cases of Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2009.)
Wood, Robin. Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Hollywood and beyond. (New York: Columbia UP, 1998.)
Bock, Audie. Japanese Film Directors. (New York: Published for the Japan Society by Kodansha International, 1978.)
Sorensen, Lars-Martin. Censorship of Japanese Films during the U.S. Occupation of Japan: The Cases of Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2009.)
Wood, Robin. Sexual Politics and Narrative Film: Hollywood and beyond. (New York: Columbia UP, 1998.)