An Autumn Afternoon, 1962

Shuhei Hirayama (Chishu Ryu) has settled into a complacent, domestic life of a widower with his adult children – his son Kazuo (Shinichiro Mikami) and daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) – in postwar Tokyo. Michiko is his only daughter, and has naturally assumed the role of lady of the house after her mother’s death. Upon hearing that one of his employees has taken a leave of absence in order to get married, Hirayama begins to evaluate Michiko’s readiness for marriage as well. His friend Kawai (Nobuo Nakamura) approaches him with a prospective match, but Hirayama delays mentioning the matter to Michiko, unconvinced by the “urgency” of the situation (or perhaps, for fear of losing her). On the evening of his class reunion, he is reunited with his former school teacher, Sakuma, affectionately known as “The Gourd”. The years have not been kind to Sakuma, who continues to work after his retirement by operating a noodle shop. Sakuma, too, had lost his wife at a young age, and his daughter, Tomoko (Haruko Sugimura), has remained unmarried in order to care for him. Witnessing the physical and emotional toll on Tomoko in single-handedly caring for an aging parent, Hirayama becomes determined to spare Michiko from a similar, heartbreaking fate.

Yasujiro Ozu creates a beautifully realized, humorous, and poignant final masterpiece in An Autumn Afternoon. Set against the backdrop of an industrialized, and increasingly westernized Tokyo, An Autumn Afternoon is a subtle, yet profound observation on the growing paradox of cultural tradition in modern society: the isolation resulting from the dissolution of the nuclear family, the societal pressures for a single woman to marry despite emotional ambivalence; the continued financial assistance by a parent for a grown child. Using equal measures of levity and sadness, Ozu creates a serene and deeply affecting story of aging, parental duty, and loneliness. The final, understated shot shows Hirayama contemplating the void of his daughter’s absence, framed against the darkness of an empty room. It is a bittersweet portrait of gentle nostalgia and resigned acceptance – a somber reflection of the inevitable passage of time – a haunting elegy for an irretrievable past, and a bittersweet reminder of the unalterable process of life.

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