It’s weird seeing oldee-tymey looking Japanese people in colour, finally. I mean, contemporary from the 1950s…
I’m digging this movie — it’s kinda languid and relaxed… And funny. I mean, so far. I’m guessing there’s gonna be some drama later, but I’m confident it won’t be too stressful.
Somehow the framing and sets here remind me of Tati — all these greys and desaturated colours and the tidyness of it all…
I guess I’m a bit confused. The movie started off in a “well, it’s nice that my daughters are finding love matches, so we don’t have to marry them off ourselves”, but then suddenly that’s a major So Much Drama thing. The father’s motivations seems a bit unclear? Why’s he such a party pooper all of a sudden?
Perhaps you had to be there. I mean, in the 50s.
I want my apartment to look like this bar.
Those dark green-grey walls… 🙀
Ozu does this scene over and over and over again in these movies — that is, the husband undressing and dropping his clothes on the floor, and then the wife picking the clothes up and putting them into the cupboard. I’m not quite sure what Ozu is trying to say, though — “fuck all Japanese men”? Or is it just something to have happen while the married couples are talking?
YES!!!
Speak for yourself!
I like this film, but… it just feels like Ozu’s not committing to the characters’ melodramas (like he did in Tokyo Twilight — he was totally on board with all the characters there). Here he’s more going “well, this guy’s certainly kinda weird and illogical”, which is a difficult position to make a compelling melodrama from.
OK, I was gonna throw a ⚃ on this, but the ending is so cuddly that I had to go one more:
Equinox Flower. Yasujirô Ozu. 1958.
This blog post is part of the Eclipse series.