Viewed at 2016 Berlin Film Festival in restored classics section.Bakushu" a mid-to-later career landmark, was one of a series of Ozu films with seasonal titles -- Early Spring, Late Spring, Early Autumn, etc. which, like most of Ozu's post-war films, deal with issues ranging from communication problems between generations to the rising role of women in post-war Japan. In this one, Hara Setsuko, Ozu's fetish lead actress, is Noriko (her usual name in Ozu pictures) who, while extremely attractive is very choosy and is getting a little old for marriage at age 28. A match is set up with a well-heeled older man -- a good prospect -- but Noriko, who has a mind of her own, will end up running off to the northern sticks (Akita Province) with a childhood friend, a widower with a child and an ex-buddy of her brother who was killed in action. The family strongly opposes this unseemly match up but finally accepts Noriko's firm decision, an early act of Woman's Lib Japanese style. Hara was an actress with a stature at the time equivalent to Katherine Hepburn in Hollywood, and her older brother in this film, Chishu Ryu, would become her father-in-law in Ozu's most famous masterpiece, Tokyo Story, two years later. Ryu might be seen as a low key Spencer Tracy, but a more subtle and tasteful actor. He appeared in 160 films in a remarkable six decade career. I can proudly say that I was once invited by him to a private tea ceremony at his home in Ôfuna near Shochiko studios. Bakushu is essential Ozu and quintessential Hara Setsuko. Setsuko, who embodied the woman every Japanese wishes he could marry, never married herself and abruptly retired from the screen in 1963, the same year that Ozu died. She then went into seclusion à la Greta Garbo, in Kamakura where most of her films with Ozu had been shot, forever shunning public appearances and refusing to grant interviews until the end. The end came this past September when Hara was ninety-five. She is famously quoted as saying that she never really liked acting but only did it to support her large family. Maybe that's why she was so utterly real on screen. She wasn't acting -- she was just t h e r e.

Ozu's films are never about anything extraordinary or remarkable. They are always very subdued, quiet, calm, genuine and very real. The film follows the life of a Japanese family post WWII. The biggest dilemma that occurs is making sure one of the daughters gets married.The subject matter is interesting. It's a country going through changes and at the same time a lot of men of the daughter's age had died during the war, so the family is starting to lose their patience in finding a husband for her. The tempo is slow and calm. It reflects real life in a good way. The situations are normal and almost every dialogue scene feels like actual conversations and not written. It can be a little too slow for some people, so be ready that the film will take it's time.The emotional core wasn't as strong as in "Tokyo Monogatari". I didn't latch on to the characters that much in this one. So, I wasn't that invested in the middle act, which was the act I thought was the weakest. The opening and ending I thought were the strongest.It makes up for its mistakes with its beautiful setting and locations which are wonderfully captured. The cinematography is really well done and the music is relaxing.

Calm and serene with a thin plot, "Early Summer" looks at a family and the changes it undergoes as a result of one of its members deciding whether or not to marry. The movie is set in early 1950′s Japan which was under American occupation and associated social influences at the time. Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is a clerk in her late twenties under pressure from her family at home to find a suitable husband. Even her boss at work jokingly suggests she should meet an old school friend of his to see if they're a good match for each other. Noriko sweetly bats off all these hints that she's nearing her meat-market use-by date and should be settling down to obedient, passive housewifely duties. Her social set divides into singleton and married-women camps arguing the pros and cons of single-hood and supposed wedded bliss so she's well aware of what she'd be walking into if she got that gold band on her finger. Interestingly, the one person who doesn't hassle Noriko about getting married is her sister-in-law who's harried by two small sons spoilt by their grandparents.The visual style of "Early Summer" is highly commendable: the camera positions place considerable physical space between us viewers and the characters. The cameras themselves are set at table height or at the level Japanese people traditionally kneel down to eat at low tables at home. Deep focus fixed-camera shots are used so people are often filmed in the background having conversations or doing things while framed by doorways, furniture and other interior fixtures. If the camera moves at all, it is to track people coming towards it or going away from it, or to pan slowly across the screen over a nature scene. The effect is to give "Easy Summer" a static, almost stage-like quality and viewers will feel very much like voyeurs peeking into people's private business. The very minimal acting places psychological distance between us and the characters. By forcing such physical and psychological distance, viewers observe the story as it develops and don't get deeply involved; this helps to reinforce the film's theme about how change affects families and the relationships within them for better and for worse. We shouldn't get upset if people suffer as this may be a short-term effect of the change and there may be long-term benefits; equally a short-term benefit may lead to adverse long-term effects."Early Summer" observes the pressure Noriko is under to conform to tradition and expectations amid fluid social, political and economic conditions, and the frustrations and distress that she experiences when social custom clashes with changing reality. At first she's unwilling to surrender her freedom, financial independence and closeness to her relatives but after continued pressure from family and friends alike, she suddenly decides to marry a widower with a child. The irony of her decision is that her relatives disapprove of the idea of a proved family man as husband over a man aged 40 years who's never married and might not be family-man material; and Noriko's impending marriage means her income will be lost to her family so her brother and his brood must move to a smaller house in Tokyo and the parents must live in the country. The hypocrisy and shallowness inherent in forcing a woman to marry purely to preserve social standing and harmony without thought for practical consequences become apparent.The acting is so sparing in its expression as to seem stereotyped: most of the women are chirpy and giggle a lot; the men stick to one mode of expression throughout the film so Noriko's boss is usually jovial and her dad and various other aged people usually act bemused at the pace of modern life. Hara does a good job within the limits set by director Ozu at portraying a woman who hides her anger, sorrow and despair behind a cheery and upbeat façade.Scenes of restless nature (beach scenes of rolling waves near the beginning and the end of the film, a scene at the end of rippling wheat ready for harvest) and of the Tokyo cityscape reflect the ongoing and impassive nature of change. The small children with their obsession with model train sets and demand for lollies and gifts are the focus of a small subplot emphasising generational differences which come with social and cultural change.Slow and reserved it may be but "Early Summer" isn't at all stodgy; it just glides by, inviting neither scorn nor sympathy for its characters. The film does suffer from not being in colour which would enhance Ozu's style of filming by adding depth to deep focus shots. Mood and atmosphere might be improved with appropriate colour choices in the interior and costume design. One aspect of "Early Summer" that some viewers might find troubling is the fatalistic attitude expressed by Noriko's parents in their new digs in the country when they kid themselves that they're happy and shouldn't ask for more in life. Their facial expressions suggest their confusion, unhappiness and feeling of being tricked or trapped in some way at the way things have turned out as a result of their daughter bowing to convention and tradition. This moment captures very well the bewilderment of a society caught up in political, economic and social changes not always of its own making.

The first few minutes of the film consist of people giving each other little commands, smothering each other in goo-like bourgeois conformity, and it never lets up. This is basically "Late Spring" except that Setsuko Hara's character is two years older, and a touch more independent – she actually dares to break with convention at the end, and that would seem to be the only justification this film at all, as elements from the earlier film are repeated unashamedly – on a train, at the temple, at the theatre, by the sea – even women sitting down to a plate of cake. It's the same actors doing the same things. What on earth was Ozu thinking? It doesn't take us forward, only detracts from the originality of what has gone before.Having lost that essential originality, what follows is suddenly irksome: characters moving in slow motion, like a tai chi exercise, are annoying; nobody is able to see beyond the immediate confines of their house and their job; people obsess and gossip about everyone else because their own lives are terminally dull. Get a life, people! Unlike "Late Spring", which was basically a two-hander, here a whole family is involved, including a detestable, abusive child who really needs a sound thrashing. There's some cute interplay between the girlfriends, but Hara is allowed no mood change, and only simpers constantly. And whereas "Late Spring" reached a satisfying conclusion, this one peters out in a kind of weary resignation such that you fully expect the characters are destined for meaningless oblivion. Such a shame – it's so well made. The placid approach, the serenity of it all, the gentle nostalgia and the melancholy sense of life passing is lovely, but is there really no other application than this?