91% (2) Late Spring 108 min, Not Rated, [Drama] [Yasujirô Ozu] [21 Jul 1972]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 83%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: 5 wins.
Actors: Chishû Ryû, Haruko Sugimura, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka
Writer: Kazuo Hirotsu (based on the novel "Chichi to musume" by), Kôgo Noda (screenplay), Yasujirô Ozu (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese Country: Japan
Plot: Noriko is 27 years old and is still living with her father Somiya, a widower. Noriko just recovered from an illness she developed in the war, and now the important question pops up: when will Noriko start thinking about marriage? Everybody who is important in her life tries to talk her into it: her father, her aunt, a girlfriend. But Noriko doesn't want to get married, she seems extremely happy with her life. She wants to stay with her father to take care of him. After all, she knows best of his manners and peculiarities. But Noriko's aunt doesn't want to give up. She arranges a partner for her and thinks of a plan that will convince Noriko her father can be left alone.
Rotten Tomatoes: Veteran Japanese writer/director Yasujiro Ozu's second postwar production was 1949's Late Spring or Banshun. Chisu Ryu plays another of Ozu's realistic middle-class types, this time a 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 they'll 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. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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91% (2) Early Summer 125 min, Not Rated, [Drama] [Yasujirô Ozu] [02 Aug 1972]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 82%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: 7 wins.
Actors: Chikage Awashima, Chishû Ryû, Kuniko Miyake, Setsuko Hara
Writer: Kôgo Noda, Yasujirô Ozu
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese, English Country: Japan
Plot: In postwar Tokyo, this household is loving and serene: older parents, their 28-year-old daughter Noriko, their married son, his devoted wife, and two rascally sons. Their only discontent is Noriko's lack of a husband. Society is changing: she works, she has women friends who tease and argue, her brother sees her independence as impudence, she sees it as normal. When her boss suggests that she marry a 40-year-old bachelor who is his friend, all the members of her family press her to accept. Without seeking their advice, and to their chagrin, Noriko determines her own course of action.
Rotten Tomatoes: Writer/director Yasujiro Ozu combines two of his favorite themes--the culture clashes in modern Japan and the emergence of the independent Japanese woman--in Early Summer (Bakushu). Setsuko Hara plays a young woman of the post-war era who is promised in an arranged marriage. But too much has happened in the world and in the girl's own life to allow her to agree to this union without protest. The characters in Early Summer are neither remote historical personages nor distant foreigners. They are types as easily recognizable in Japan as in any country, and this commonality enhances the universal appeal of this austere film. Yasujiro Ozu collaborated on the script of Early Summer with Kogo Noda. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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91% (2) Tokyo Story 136 min, Not Rated, [Drama] [Yasujirô Ozu] [13 Mar 1972]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 82%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, External Reviews
Awards: 3 wins.
Actors: Chieko Higashiyama, Chishû Ryû, Haruko Sugimura, Setsuko Hara, Sô Yamamura
Writer: Kôgo Noda (scenario), Yasujirô Ozu (scenario)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese, English Country: Japan
Plot: An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their children and are confronted by indifference, ingratitude and selfishness. When the parents are packed off to a resort by their impatient children, the film deepens into an unbearably moving meditation on mortality.
Rotten Tomatoes: Originally Tokyo Monogatari, Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story centers on a provincial Japanese family. The elderly parents and youngest daughter journey to Tokyo to visit their doctor son and his brood. Too busy for this onslaught of relatives, the callous, insensitive doctor packs his parents and sibling off to a resort, where they are unable to enjoy themselves due to the noise of the other tourists. The aging father locates some old drinking cronies, while the mother seeks out new friends. And so it goes, in Ozu's inimitable anecdotal fashion, until the tragic finale. A sensitive study of the frustrations and disillusionments accompanying the onslaught of old age (Ozu, incidentally, was only 51 at the time), Tokyo Story was completed in 1953, but not released in the U.S. until 1972.
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76% (2) The Idiot 166 min, Not Rated, [Drama, Romance] [Akira Kurosawa] [30 Apr 1963]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, Rotten Tomatoes: 78%, External Reviews
Actors: Masayuki Mori, Setsuko Hara, Toshirô Mifune, Yoshiko Kuga
Writer: Fyodor Dostoevsky (novel), Eijirô Hisaita, Akira Kurosawa
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese Country: Japan
Plot: Kameda, who has been in an asylum on Okinawa, travels to Hokkaido. There he becomes involved with two women, Taeko and Ayako. Taeko comes to love Kameda, but is loved in turn by Akama. When Akama realizes that he will never have Taeko, his thoughts turn to murder, and great tragedy ensues.
Rotten Tomatoes: A former soldier is branded an idiot because of his epileptic seizures caused by wartime experiences. He shows unbridled compassion for people after he moves in with friends of his family as he tries to help a young man ruined by the war and a woman hounded by a wealthy but cruel suitor. All the characters are victims of the war and its devastating emotional aftershocks. Taken from Feodor Dostoyevsky's classic novel, the screenplay was written by the film's director, Akira Kurosawa.
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79% (1) Repast 97 min, [Drama] [Mikio Naruse] [21 Sep 1984]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 79%, External Reviews
Awards: 9 wins.
Actors: Ken Uehara, Setsuko Hara, Yukiko Shimazaki, Yôko Sugi
Writer: Toshirô Ide (screenplay), Sumie Tanaka (screenplay), Yasunari Kawabata (scenario supervisor), Fumiko Hayashi (novel)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Japanese Country: Japan
Plot: Michiyo lives in the small place Osaka and is not happy with her marriage, all she does is cook and clean for her husband.
Rotten Tomatoes: Based on popular Japanese writer Fumiko Hayahi's final novel, a condemning portrait of married life and women's position in Japanese society, Repast tells the story of Michiyo and Hatsunosuke, a married couple who, in the routine of family life, have begun to fall out of love. With no child to cement their bond, they are still free to question their marriage. Especially since it was a marriage not of convenience, but of love. While Hatsunosuke seems unperturbed, Michiyo fully realizes the growing distance between them and the anguish deeply pains her. Events come to a head when Hatsunosuke's attractive young niece arrives and Michiyo suspects her of making advances. Her heart broken, Michiyo confronts her husband with all of her complaints. Once again, he is uninterested and aloof and she flees his house back to her family. After a long period of depression and several total failures to begin her life anew, Michiyo meets with Hatsunosuke and they superficially patch up their differences. The film ends with Michiyo returning to her married home, forlornly staring out the train window. ~ Brian Whitener, Rovi
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