Early Spring is two films: one, it's a superb rumination on the disillusionment of corporate salaryman life; and two, it's Ozu's ultimate husband-wife marriage film. The main characters in this movie are tired people. They are tired because they have the same routine every day. They are tired because they are bored and overworked. They are tired because their only child died. This might be the most tired movie in the history of cinema, and that's why its length as…

Late Spring belongs to that small category of films which are among the greatest movies ever made. All of Ozu's cinematic language comes together at last ... the bike ride on the beach, the train, the elision into ambiguity, the crowd of people funneling into a small space, empty mirrors, passageways, a woman with a wildly violent and eccentric smile saying the most brutal, incongruous things.

Chishu Ryu gives the greatest father speech of all-time near the end of this…