Before the start of westernization in the XIX century, Japan remained an exceptionally closed country for two hundred and fifty years. A rapid influx of foreigners and the new customs that they beheld caused the Japanese people to experience a certain state of chaos when they had to adjust to social, political, and cultural shifts. The classic of world cinematography, Yasujiro Ozu’s The Late Spring shot in the aftermath of the war in 1949, explores several different subjects: time, tradition and modernity, and the concept of family. This film shows the trends that enveloped Japanese society and, in some way, forced it to adhere to new rules and discard the old ones. A marriage that is forced upon the protagonist Noriko, puts her and her family through a quandary of orienting between modern and traditional values.
The two major themes explored by Ozu in the film are the westernization of Japan and its post-war state, as well as family ties. Two main characters in the film, 27-year-old Noriko and her father Sukichi, go through a difficult internal dilemma that makes them be confronted with a choice between internal yearning and tradition. Noriko is an unmarried woman in her late twenties but it bothers neither her nor her father. They share a happy life until Noriko’s aunt Masa points out the fact that it is high time for Noriko to get married and leave her father’s home. Noriko refuses to leave her father, as she explains that he will not be able to take care of himself alone and that she is perfectly content with her life the way it is. Sukichi, who is a representative of an older generation, also feels internal resistance to letting Noriko go and start a life of her own. Thus, both characters experience internal torment, as they feel the weight of tradition and the need to either respect or withstand it.
Noriko reflects modern values in the film, as she is against marrying for the sake of marrying – she confronts the power of tradition and courageously strives to resist it. She does not feel the pressure of her age to get married, nor does she seek a man to sustain her life and care for her. From this point of view, on a societal level, she represents purely Western values. For instance, Ozu emphasizes her externally progressive worldview by dressing Noriko’s character in modernized western clothing, rather than traditional Japanese attire like other characters in the film like Masa and Sukichi. The director shows glimpses of a Coca-Cola commercial in the scene of Noriko and Hattori’s bicycle ride and puts details like the Saturday Evening Post into the shot. However, it is not so evident, if Noriko is indeed the epitome of modern values.
At the beginning of the film, Noriko meets her father’s friend Onodera, a widower like her father. During their meeting, she finds out that Onodera has remarried: this news evokes Noriko’s distinctly negative reaction, as she strongly condemns the idea of remarriage. Noriko reacts even in a more intense way to the words of Sukichi that he considers remarrying, as suggested by Aunt Masa. For some reason, internally Noriko rejects the progressive stance on marriage and family that makes it a more flexible but less durable bond which severely undermines a traditional concept of marriage and family.
Noriko holds on to the idea of not marrying and staying with her father not out of her progressive values, but rather because she rejects life changes that are forced onto her. She finally decides to marry Satake only as a sacrifice for her father’s happiness, who, in his turn, sacrifices his happiness for Noriko by lying to her about his supposed remarriage. The tears in Noriko’s eyes on her wedding day reveal her true internal state, but she is sad not because she is sacrificing her freedom – she is mourning the end of life with her father when she was happy and content. On a societal level, Noriko’s decision to get married can be viewed as a reflection of modern views. However, deep inside Noriko adheres to her tradition of life in a paternal house and suffers from the need to say goodbye to it.
Therefore, in the Late Spring, Ozu thinly explores the concept of time and how it ties into ordinary people’s life by shattering traditions and imposing new rules of the game. Ozu’s depiction of time is not discrete, as his characters are maneuvering between the past and the future, tradition, and progress, shifting back in forth in a loop. In the Late Spring, the present which can be seen as represented by Noriko and Sukichi is elusive, hard to grasp, and impossible to characterize from the point of view of conventionalism or modernity. Thus, Noriko’s decision to marry can reflect both traditional and modern values. In the end, the ever-changing nature of reality triumphs, as, despite Noriko’s ardent attempts to resist, she ultimately has to accept the natural flow of time.
Reference
Ozu, Y. (1949). Late Spring (Banshun) [Film]. Shochiku.