The End of Summer
1961 ‘Kohayagawa-ke no aki’ Directed by Yasujirō Ozu
Synopsis
The Kohayakawa family is thrown into distress when childlike father Manbei takes up with his old mistress, in one of Ozu’s most deftly modulated blendings of comedy and tragedy.
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What you would expect from Ozu. Another social family drama from traditional Japan. But what is amazing about Ozu and this film is he can keep on making the same type of movies over and over again but they never appear tiresome and never fail to impress. Ozu is probably one of the few directors incapable of making a bad film, granted I say that with having only seen a third of his repertoire. The End of Summer treads slightly on unique ground compared to his other films as it successfully attempts to blend comedy and tragedy into one film. One may look at this film and his later works such as An Autumn Afternoon made so closely right before…
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It's the way they talk and how the Ozu montage works that make the "Zen" aspect of the film to merge with rom-com playfulness. We care for the people here, but at the same time, not really. Rather than their "stories", it's the way how they look at each other or how sometimes they stare into the space which brings out harmony of cinema and life, which can come through precise images and sound, a picture book quality.
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A lighter Ozu film that's sense of tragedy builds as it nears its conclusion. The father's playful approach to life contrasts strongly with the loss that his absence would create. And though his family depends on him, he spends most of his time looking elsewhere for companionship. Ozu captures these tensions beautifully by focusing on a wide variety of characters within and outside the family. This gives the film breadth, but leaves it feeling a bit more diffuse than we come to expect from Ozu.
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What you would expect from Ozu. Another social family drama from traditional Japan. But what is amazing about Ozu and this film is he can keep on making the same type of movies over and over again but they never appear tiresome and never fail to impress. Ozu is probably one of the few directors incapable of making a bad film, granted I say that with having only seen a third of his repertoire. The End of Summer treads slightly on unique ground compared to his other films as it successfully attempts to blend comedy and tragedy into one film. One may look at this film and his later works such as An Autumn Afternoon made so closely right before…
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Just watched Tasujiro Ozu's THE END OF SUMMER. This is a movie about a family involved in the sake business, and how things get shaken up when the patriarch gets involved with an old flame. As with most of Ozu's movies, the family is trying to marry off the daughters, and the guys spend a lot of time getting drunk. I responded a bit stronger to this movie than some of Ozu's other films. First of all, the family unit is a little larger, so there are more plot-threads to follow, and second of all, the movie clocks in at a cool 103 minutes, which didn't make watching it seem like a chore.Out of the 8 Ozu films I've seen so far, I think I like this one the best, along with THE ONLY SON.
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Kohayagawa-ke no aki