Ozu\'s Late Spring 1949

¶ … Spring (1949):

The death of freedom with the beginning of marriage

The title Late Spring refers to the fact that the movie chronicles the 'late spring' of the main character's life. The 1949 film is characteristic of the output of Yasujiro Ozu in its fundamentally anthropocentric or human-focused narrative (Wood 108). The young woman Noriko is considered an 'old maid' because she is no longer a teenager. However, Noriko seems unconcerned about her status. She enjoys taking care of her elderly father Shukichi and the two of them are satisfied by the arrangement. However, the girl's meddling aunt Masa is not: she tells her brother that Noriko must get married; otherwise the girl will be left with nothing after he dies. The widower Professor Shukichi reluctantly agrees to engage in an elaborate deception to convince his daughter he is getting remarried, despite the fact that he is not. Noriko marries as a result of this deception. The film suggests the social bullying of the aunt makes everyone unhappy except the aunt, who is falsely convinced she has done a good deed. The film presents marriage as a tragedy and a loss of freedom, not just for Noriko but for all of the main characters. Ultimately, the old Japanese traditions of filial piety are shown to be untenable, even while the new traditions and unions offered by modernity in the postwar climate offer no real sources of happiness.

Ozu characteristically uses a very static camera, keeps the camera about mid-level to allow for a picture-like shot of the participants, and focuses in the dialogue and intimate relationships rather than the action-related aspects of the story (Wood 109-110). However, the film is still told through an intense attention to visual detail. At one point, Noriko seems to be establishing a relationship with her father's assistant Hattori: the two of them go on a bike ride together and later he invites her to a concert. However, she refuses because she does not want to leave her father. This refusal is symbolized by a hat resting on an empty seat which 'speaks' for the girl's choice in life -- to remain at home (Ebert 1972).

The film illustrates the complex intersection of tradition and liberation in postwar Japan. On the surface, Noriko's chaste life seems to represent tradition. She gives up her life to care for her father. But Noriko does not perceive this as a sacrifice. Masa's very conventional view of the true purpose of womanhood is hardly liberating in the way she sees the girl as a potential 'old maid' at a relatively young age. And at the end of the film, it is the father, not the child who makes the ultimate sacrifice -- the professor is left alone. His supposed 'match' with the widow Mrs. Miwa is in fact an elaborate charade.

The film presents a very negative view both of marriage and change. In trying to recommend marriage to his daughter, Shukichi says: "your mother wasn't happy at first. I found her weeping in the kitchen many times" (Ebert 1972). Noriko views her father's flirting and supposed prospective marriage as a kind of betrayal for all she has worked for her entire life. At the end of the movie, Ozu does not even show the face of the man that Noriko marries. It does not matter, given that she does not marry for love but merely as the result of social pressures and deceptions. The intensity between the father and daughter is such that it is almost incestuous and no other relationship can compare: Noriko has clearly taken on the role once occupied by her late mother, or even surpassed it. According to one critic: "we are left no doubt that a strong mutual attraction exists between father and daughter" (Wood 116).

However, others have noted that Noriko's 'sacrifice' is to some extent quite convenient for the girl. The beginning of the film shows the father and daughter living happily together in the same household, and parodying rather than honoring the traditional filial, patriarchal relationship between father and daughter. There are even vague suggestions that Noriko is not interested in men at all (her father notes that she is obsessed with Katherine Hepburn, not a male actor) and despite her apparent fascination with Hattori, it is noteworthy that she only seems attracted to a man she cannot possibly 'have' (Wood 114). At minimum, what she does enjoy with Hattori -- going to sake bars, riding by the ocean on a bike -- are just the sorts of pleasures that would be denied to her as a married woman (Wood 116). When Noriko's friend the divorcee Aya comes to visit it is the father who waits on both women. Aya's friendship and presence highlights the fact that the narrow roles for women suggested by Masa are not necessarily the only real options From Noriko's point-of-view, by refusing to marry to prevent her father from becoming lonely, she can be acceptably alone and free, without the confines of a husband in a society where marriage is the norm.

But although marriage may be particularly confining for women, no one in Late Spring marries for love. The professor openly admits that his was an arranged marriage with Noriko's husband, and it was not a happy one. He has no desire to remarry and would rather orchestrate a false marriage to pressure his daughter (as he feels he 'must') than enter into a real marriage. As cold and alone as his room may seem after his daughter leaves, he chooses this over another wife. Hattori enters into a marriage with a woman he does not love as well.