7/10
An Ozu film involving a small community (neighborhood I guess) and their amusing internal politics, the central ones being the neighborhood's collective rent that went missing instead of being turned in, and two of the young boys refusing to speak until their parents buy them a TV. It is typical Ozu - charming and lightly humorous and a little poignant at times. I don't love any of Ozu's movies but they're all enjoyable on one level or another.
7/10
Ozu's last film and the last one of my little Ozu season, this one was by far the most scattershot of the five. Maybe Ozu knew it was going to be his last and wanted to get as much in there as possible? I don't know. I enjoyed the central thrust - the five friends and their relationship with their aging, on-hard-times professor. Again, single women and marriage play a part, but the war actually plays a surprisingly large role...to a distracting end, almost. Probably my least favorite of the five, but not by much.
8/10
Late Autumn is something of a re-working of Late Spring - despite society and family pressures, a young, eligible woman shows little interest in marriage, to the confusion of all around her. In Late Spring the young woman didn't want to abandon her father. In Late Autumn, it's the mother. Three friends of the mother's deceased husband take a keen interest in fixing her up, and it's quite funny to see them obsess over this "case" and the methods and ideas they come up with. If Japanese society of the time was anything the way Ozu depicts it, it's staggering how much of a focus marriage used to be back then.
7.5/10
The recently-named best film of all time according to S&S' directors' poll, I had a feeling it wouldn't leave the same impression on me and I was right. As much as I enjoy and respect the Ozu movies I've seen, they don't thrill me enough to consider them best-evers. Compared to the other, simpler films I saw, this one was practically action-packed. It certainly has the most meat. It touches on all kinds of themes but central is the alienation of the elderly couple, and the generational divides that separate them, their children, and their children's children.
8/10
Another touching meditation on marriage and the single Japanese woman, it's interesting to see how often and from how many different angles Ozu tackles this issue. I was into this one less than Late Spring, but still enjoyed.
8/10
I'd never seen any Ozu movies, and 7 were playing in a brief program...I managed to catch 5, this being the first. Ozu was infamous for his static camera but seeing it is a lot different than hearing about it. The long shots and the actors speaking directly into the camera - it's almost disorienting at first. Not to mention how low to the ground everything is, which makes sense considering Japanese culture of the time, but is still a bit of an adjustment. I struggle with just how uplifting and just how depressing it is, and I don't think it was a debate ever meant to be answered. But it's very touching, especially the father's speech to his daughter about marriage and relationships.
