LATE SPRING (1949) 108 mins

Event information

Veteran Japanese writer/director Yasujiro Ozu's second postwar production was Late Spring or Banshun. Chisu Ryu plays a realistic middle-class widower with a marriageable daughter. Not wishing to see the girl resign herself to spinsterhood, Ryu pretends that he himself is about to be married. The game plan is to convince the daughter that there will be no room for her at home, thus forcing her to seek comfort and joy elsewhere. What makes this homey little domestic episode work is the rapport between Chisu Ryu and Setsuko Hara, who plays the daughter. Late Spring is no facile Hollywood farce; we like these people, believe in them, and wish them the best.