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An Autumn Afternoon - Criterion Collection | 
| Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Actors: Shima Iwashita, Daisuke Kato, Kyoko Kishida, Shin-ichiro Mikami, Kuniko Miyake
Studio: Criterion Collection
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  11 reviews
Format: Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc, Subtitled
Languages: Japanese (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 113 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 1768
UPC: 715515031721
EAN: 0715515031721
ASIN: B001BEK8CE
Theatrical Release Date: 1962
Release Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED!
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Product Description
Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 09/30/2008 Run time: 113 minutes Rating: Nr
Amazon.com
Deceptively breezy, Yasujiro Ozu's final film, made in 1962, is the lovely culmination of the mysterious writer-director's fascination with family, and the social mechanisms by which different generations fulfill obligations to one another and to themselves. The central character, Shuhei Hirayama (Chishu Ryu, Ozu's longtime collaborator), is a 60-ish executive and widower who slowly grows concerned that his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko (Shima Iwashita), has not married because she feels responsible for taking care of him at home. Taciturn, low-key, but affable, Shuhei is a hard man to read. But through his friendships, habits, daily reminders of his past and fear that he might rob his daughter of her youth, Shuhei gradually comes to terms with his responsibility to see Michiko fulfilled and happy. There is also more to it than that: An Autumn Afternoon is also about Shuhei turning a page in his small part in history, the closing chapters of a life that involved military service during World War II and settling into post-war, largely Westernized Japan. These things are all understated, but Ozu gives every character a shape, a recognition that one must play the cards one is dealt without self-deception. With that comes a certain Zen serenity, humor and perhaps melancholy, but in An Autumn Afternoon's spirit of acceptance, a bittersweet life is a good life. Special features on this Criterion release include trailers and excerpts from a French television special about Ozu. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Ozu's Valedictory Film Seems a Most Fitting Summation of His Legendary Career October 31, 2008
Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The last work from revered filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu is a surprising delight, at once a summation of the family dramas that dominated his postwar career and a celebration of his quiet artistry. It's a movie that doesn't call attention to itself and even goes as far as lifting entire sequences from his previous films. At the same time, this 1962 drama is not so much a re-telling of the same stories (co-written with longtime collaborator Kogo Noda) as it is a re-evaluation of the same dramatic themes that inform the director's work since Late Spring, his 1949 classic to which this film bears the strongest resemblance. Ozu aficionados will find all his familiar, idiosyncratic touches here - the elliptical narrative, the observational view of the characters from the outside, the thoughtfully composed shots, and the stationary, slightly above-ground camera angles to replicate the perspective of someone sitting on a tatami mat. Moreover, Ozu liked using the same actors over and over again, so it comes a no surprise that frequent Ozu actor Chishu Ryu stars in the director's valedictory film.
The character-rich plot centers on middle-aged businessman Shuhei Hirayama who lives with his 24-year-old daughter Michiko and younger son Kazuo. In the absence of a mother, Michiko takes care of the wifely responsibilities for her father and brother and hasn't considered marriage in the near term even though Japanese tradition would label her an old maid soon enough. Hirayama's old friend Kawai has an eligible bachelor in mind to connect with Michiko, but her heart belongs to someone else who is unaware of her interest. Hirayama thinks there is no hurry to marry his daughter off until he sees his old middle schoolteacher comically nicknamed "The Gourd" by his old classmates. Hirayama and Kawai take the wizened man home in a drunken state after a night of sake and beer. They see that he now owns a run-down noodle shop and lives with his daughter, an aging spinster who reveals hints of her sad fate. As Hirayama forges ahead with his daughter's prospect, his older son Koichi struggles to live within his modest means with a wife who nags him about his spendthrift ways. He needs to borrow money from his father to buy a new refrigerator but wants to buy a set of used MacGregor golf clubs against his wife's objections. The plot threads eventually come together when Michiko does marry leaving Hirayama to share household responsibilities with Kazuo.
What first catches your eye is Ozu's vivid use of color, especially a bold use of red in both defining and transitional shots. The other aspect is tonal as the director has moved from the barely concealed emotionalism of his early works to a certain ruefulness in his last film. The last few minutes cover the exact same dramatic finale of "Late Spring", but this time, it doesn't seem nearly as tragic, evoking a slightly melancholic resignation. The stoic Ryu plays the role of the widowed father in both films, this time given an intriguing backstory as an officer in the Imperial Navy during World War II. This leads to my favorite scene at a bar where Hirayama runs into a former sailor under his command (played with boisterous relish by Kurosawa favorite Daisuke Kato) and speculate what Japan would be like had they won the war. Played by Kyoko Kishida, the bar hostess will be familiar to art-house connoisseurs for the title role in Hiroshi Teshigahara's classic Woman in the Dunes. Another familiar face is Haruko Sugimura (the selfish older daughter in Tokyo Story) whose cameo as the schoolteacher's spinster daughter is heartbreaking. Eijiro Tono (Tora! Tora! Tora!) cuts an effectively pitiable figure as her father.
Shima Iwashita plays Michiko with snippy plaintiveness, effective enough but a far cry from the luminous Setsuko Hara in the earlier film (her reassuring presence is missed here). Keiji Sada (who sadly died in a car crash soon after this film was made) and Mariko Okada etch a revealing postwar portrait of a young Japanese couple struggling to make ends meet in their small apartment. Compared to previous Ozu classics released by the Criterion Collection, the extras on this 2008 release are sparse and limited to one disc. First, there is a highly informative commentary track by author David Bordwell (Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema). The second is a fifteen-minute excerpt from a 1978 French TV special, "Yasujiro Ozu and The Taste of Saki" just as France was discovering his work. Critics Michel Ciment and Georges Perec lend their rather pretentious perspectives. Two theatrical trailers round out the disc extras. There is also a 28-page booklet about the film's production included in the slipcase.
Yasujoro Ozu's last film is one of his best. October 19, 2008
Ted M. (Pennsylvania, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
The film's Japanese title is "Sanma no aji", which means "The Taste of Saury", saury being a kind of fish.
The film is about a widowed man whose daughter wishes to get married. He wants her to continue to live with him as a caregiver but he realizes that she should be allowed to do as she wishes.
This was the final movie by accalimed director, Yasujiro Ozu, whose career spanned decades. He was planning another film after this but he died before it could be made.
The DVD has some fine supplements also. There is a theatrical trailer, audio commentary by David Bordwell, who has written a book on Ozu, and scenes from a 1978 French television special on Ozu.
This is one of Ozu's best films and it should be seen by all interested in Japanese cinema.
 A really charming little film October 9, 2008
Charles D. Ungar (Torrance, CA United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a character driven film that relies on the excellent performances of its diverse cast. Chisu Ryu is an absolute marvel to behold. No matter what adversities come his way he always manages to keep a sly half grin on his face as if to show that he is unbreakable despite the problems that he encounters. This is character acting at his very finest and all the characters are wonderful.
Great movie...beware of booklet October 2, 2008
Robert Furem (Chicago, IL United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love Ozu and Criterion, but my booklet is missing several pages. I have notified Criterion. Hopefully they will fix this.
The Taste of an Autumn Mackerel........ July 3, 2008
Grigory's Girl (NYC)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
This was Yasujiro Ozu's final film. Is it phenomenally different than other Ozu works? Is it a film that takes Ozu in a radically different direction? No. It's just the final chapter in one of the most unique filmographies in cinema history. It's like all his other films, in that it's contemplative, beautiful, moving, serene, and simple, yet, it feels new and unique. Ozu's films, if taken all together, are like a long novel, all leading up to this one, which ended up being the final chapter (even though Ozu did not intend it to be that way). Many say that a filmmaker just keeps remaking the same film all his/her life, and with Ozu that may be true. A friend of mine criticised his aesthetic because of this, but whenever I watch a film of his, I feel so alive and peaceful. Ozu's plots are often the same with minor variations, yet, I am watching a great artist paint another portrait in film, and I don't feel that Ozu is repeating himself at all. Despite the differences between the films, the films all feel unique and gentle. They are filled with a deep humanism, and they are all knowing and filled with that eternal longing.
This film has a deeper sadness that Ozu's other work. It also has some very funny comedy, and may I say, even a bit dark for an Ozu film. There is also some bitterness to the characters, a little more tart than other Ozu films, but also that deep humanism as well. There are some really moving scenes here, especially when we see the daughter in her wedding gown, and the final shot of the film (and the final shot of Ozu's career) where Chishu Ryu sits down in a darkened kitchen, alone.
The transfer of the film is a little grainy at times (probably due to the source material), but the film is still very watchable. There are 2 trailers (and they feature Ozu himself directing the film), a fascinating excerpt from a French TV show about cinema (with Michel Clement, the famous film critic), and commentary (which is your standard, film professor type boredom).
The original title of this film was The Taste of an Autumn Mackerel, which doesn't really translate well into English. The American title is An Autumn Afternoon, and it's a much better title for the film. It's a great, wonderful film, a worthy final chapter to one of the greatest, most unique directors in cinema history.
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