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Even though the comparison is obviously intentional, Yasujiro Ozu's 1960 film is really a variation on his classic 1949 father-daughter drama, "Late Spring". He goes further with this parallel by having the wondrous Setsuko Hara, who played the daughter in the original film, play the mother in this one, even though only eleven years have elapsed. Gone is the alternately feisty, flirtatious and petulant manner that marked her earlier performance as Noriko, and in its place is that remarkable stillness and quiet warmth in her portrayal of Akiko that marked the best of Hara's later performances. She was barely forty during filming, yet she carries the gravitas of her role with uncommon ease. What remains consistent between her two performances is the unearthly devotion which ties the characters intractably to the world in which they have grown accustomed.

Ozu wrote the quietly perceptive script with longtime collaborator Kogo Noda, and the filmmaker's trademark touches - the narrative ellipses, the lack of melodrama, the low camera angles - are all here in their emotionally resonant glory. This time, the character of Akiko has such an easy sisterly bond with her daughter Ayako that neither has an interest in dating or marriage. While Akiko's situation is more or less accepted by society, Ayako's single status is a point of consternation, especially for three friends of Akiko's late husband, all of whom express feelings of unrequited love for the unavailable Akiko. They are jointly intent on finding Ayako a suitable husband and find one in Goto, a young, well-mannered bachelor with a suitable career. Akiko, however, demurs at the possibility of matrimony which leads the story through its inevitable paces.

Yôko Tsukasa is pretty and affecting as Ayako, though honestly no match for the younger Hara in the earlier film. More of that uninhibited spirit is present in Mariko Okada, who plays Ayako's friend and colleague Yuriko. She has a terrifically abrasive and amusing confrontation with the trio of embarrassed matchmakers, and the result comes across as a bit of an imbalance to the viewer now since Yuriko's Westernized independence is more compelling than Ayako's more innate diffidence. Adding more to the comedic aspects of the story, Shin Saburi, Nabuo Nakamura and Ryuji Kita play the matchmaking trio almost like a Shakespearean comedy troupe. Interestingly, Ozu uses a decidedly Italianate-sounding score to underscore the action, a nice unpredictable touch. This well-preserved film is not as essential as "Late Spring", but it is a worthy addition to Ozu's filmography.

If you have never seen a film by Yasujiro Ozu, you may have difficulty adjusting to his restrained and subtle handling of emotions; identifying Ozu as a director not known for action-packed narrative is massive understatement, as his films reflect a less hectic time and an ancient culture slowly coming to terms with change.

On the surface, this film is simply about the separation occurring as a daughter marries and a parent is left behind. With Ozu, however, carefully and consistently arranging composition, with gentle humor and a quiet observation of the human condition, there is much to be gained from reflection, from watching people realistically and patiently coming to terms with change. No one screams and throws dishes, no one bleeds copiously or falls out of a window, no one even runs across the street. My grandmother used to say "possess your soul in patience," and that said, a viewer may need to do just that with Late Autumn; the willing viewer will be amply rewarded with this amazing examination of calm resignation in the face of a life change

Ozu's common themes of ageing, filial ties and modernisation are as present here as in many other of his films. But in this film, as well as the melancholy and gentleness we are accustomed to, there are large doses of comedy which makes this film far more accessible for the uninitiated.

The story centres around a widow (Setsuko Hara) and her daughter (Yoko Tsukasa). The daughter doesn't want to get married because she wants to care for her mother, whereas the mother wants her daughter to marry even though she realises she'll be left alone. So far everything is extremely familiar. Except that in this case the dead husband's friends get involved, trying to find suitors for both mother and daughter, thus creating comical situations, causing family tensions, and finally necessitating for the daughter's friend to step in and sort out the mess.

All in all highly recommended for anyone who wishes to try out this highly prestigious director, and a strong reminder for fans of why we love him so much.

Of Ozu's trilogy on marriage Japanese style this one is my favorite. In fact many of my comments apply to the other two, Late Spring (1949) and Early Summer (1951). All three deal with the concept of marriage as seen in traditional Japanese society and even though to my western eyes it seems antiquated, Ozu manages to present it as a sensible, inherently logical way to pair two people. But what ultimately attracts me to his work is his presentation. The plot unfolds in a slow, languorous way. It's linear but with gaps in time which are fully explained so that we are not left guessing as to intervening events. What we see and hear is the important stuff. We, in essence, are eavesdropping on intimate family conversations, the kind of things discussed at every dinner table, things important to a family but more or less irrelevant to the outside world. Somehow Ozu makes that interesting. Naturally the actors play an important part and the presence of two of my favorite Japanese actors, Setsuko Hara and Chisu Ryu, in all three are a definite plus. So why is this one my favorite? Humor and lots of it. The first two are rather serious, drama-filled works where the characters exhibit much angst. Late Autumn on the other hand is light and airy, there's a bounce to it, and it's filled with a lot of sexual innuendo that is completely absent from the others. It's as if Ozu was saying to us that the post-WWII years was a time for Japan to buckle down to the serious work of rebuilding society. By 1960 the joy of living had returned to his country. It could afford the bumbling of three well-meaning and occasionally lecherous men whose efforts at match-making were only half successful.

This story is basically a retelling of the excellent "late Spring", except now the always engaging Setsuko Hara plays the mother in the film rather than the daughter. The daughter, the beautiful Ayako played by Yoko Tsukasa, is being told its time to marry. Three friends of her late father (essentially uncles) attempt to arrange a suitable partner for her. Ozu has updated his films before and he always manages to keep them fresh. This time, it is both humorous as well as poignant. A great addition to the story is Ayako's best friend Yuriko, a spitfire who isn't afraid to speak her mind. I especially like the relationship of Akiko (Hara) and Ayako as mother and daughter. They seem very comfortable with each other. In the previous "Late Spring", there was more tension. That is what gives "late Spring" the nod as the better film, it is a masterpiece. In this film the acting is uniformly good to great and there are some standout scenes, especially between the always beautiful, gifted actress Setsuko Hara and Yoko Tsukasa. There is also a great scene between Yuriko and the three men who are trying to find a suitor for Ayako. By all means, watch this film, but don't miss "late Spring". This film is available on the 5 disc "Late Ozu" set and both the film and box set are highly recommended.

In many ways a retread of his earlier masterpiece Late Spring, which dealt with the relationship between a widowed father and his marry-able daughter, Ozu returned to familiar territory as he often did late in his career for a look at the flip-side. Here, the mother is widowed and desires to see her daughter married and happy. Three friends determine to intervene, leaving a trail of misunderstandings and hurt feelings in their attempt to appease all involved.

While this is certainly a familiar story for Ozu to tell, he somehow manages to inject new life into it every time out. Through a beautiful color palette and his famous visual style, Ozu explores a world of postwar Japan that finally appears to be picking itself up fifteen years after World War II. Western dress and behavior continues to seep into Japanese culture and Ozu seems to be picking up on the rapid evolution of change within his country throughout these late career works. His lack of interest in plot and storytelling leaves the viewer more time to focus on the atmosphere, the context in which the story is set. The result is a very pensive and serene feeling as one realizes that no matter what time or place, humans will always desire certain things. Companionship, love and happiness will never go out of style, even for widowed women.

Setsuko Hara's husband is dead and his old college friends gather, as they often do anyway. The widow's daughter, Yôko Tsukasa, is 24, which means it's time she married. So they pick out a candidate, Keiji Sada. Only she's not interested, because she feels her mother needs her.

Well, we've seen this before in Ozu movies. In LATE SPRING, it was Miss Hara's turn to be a stubborn daughter worried about a widowed parent. Now, eleven years later, she's the widowed parent with a stubborn daughter. However, this one is pretty much as straight a comedy as Ozu turned out after the War, so just as it begins with a funeral, we can be certain it will end with a wedding. There are remarks made that are clearly asides to the audience, like every waitress and bartender apologizing for the delay in service, and the three friends who realize they need to get Miss Hara remarried and choose one of their number as the groom. Matters grow more confused, people are told about things that haven't been done, and it's the turn of Mariko Okada, as Miss Tsukasa's friend to whom she's not talking, to drag everyone together and get some straight answers out of them... and to lug the drunken men to her father's sushi joint, because he can use the business.

It's warm and funny and familiar to anyone who's seen Ozu's movies. It makes me wish I had friends and family like that.

Well, it was bound to happen eventually: The more films I viewed from noted Japanese auteur Yasujiro Ozu, there was going to come a time when my well of interest ran dry. I have now seen ten of his films, and Ozu seems unique among filmmakers, even the most praised, by being essentially the anti-Billy Wilder. Where Wilder's mind was so brilliantly scattered that he did pictures in nearly every conceivable genre, and did them well, Ozu was always more interested in mining different stories out of the same cloth, hopping from patch to patch on a quilt of nuanced familial drama. Where Wilder branched out, Ozu dug his roots in deep. He had an exclusive stable of actors, comprising some of the most talented and, like their helmsman, subtly versatile actors in the business, including the transcendent Chishu Ryu and the great Sestuko Hara, appearing here as the mother to the always-adorable Yoko Tsukasa, essaying the role that Hara herself brought to life in Late Spring. Ryu has the remarkable ability to present to us a man of any age with very little in the way of physical alterations (in the span of five years, he played father, brother and grandfather to Hara and was utterly convincing in all). Hara has the exact opposite gift: That of an ageless wonder. Early on in Late Autumn, a comment is made that Hara and her daughter Tsukasa look more like sisters than mother-daughter, and it's absolutely true. In the eleven-year span from Spring to Autumn, Hara has swapped roles but kept the same face, and she brings her A-game yet again, looking more weary and fatigued than ever before.

But there's a problem. Where Ozu's style had always seemed evocative and direct, here is seems...stilted and awkward. The use of direct address in discussions seems disjointed and stiff. What felt emotionally confrontational in Late Spring comes off here as almost amateurish, merely content to blandly cut back and forth between one talking head and another. The fact that he's done that all his career perhaps says something about this film as an individual entity. Or perhaps it's just become all too familiar. When you're looking to derive a myriad of tales from the same few thematic points, there's always the danger of indifference; having the same actors play similar characters doing similar things in similar ways in movies with similar titles, it's a testament to his brilliance that he managed to make it more than one film, but here, it all just strikes of creative exhaustion: He's seemingly run out of stories to the point that he's now reworking the similar stories he's already done, as this is almost directly a remake of his 1949 masterpiece Late Spring, except mostly from the female perspective. While it appears to be a monumental shift for such a gradual director (I still remember first experiencing Tokyo Story and being so startled by its singular tracking shot that I was shaken to my core), actually far too little is new. Most of the motions and emotions we are presented with were all essentially inferred in Late Spring, and this seems if nothing else, an unnecessary diversion to a place we're already been.

Now this is not to say that the film is a complete dud. Everyone involved is so talented that they can't help but stumble into several moments of effective heartstrain, most notable the touching restraint of the final shot, but I just can't shake the feeling that with Late Autumn, instead of hopping to a new stitch on the quilt, he's stepping right back onto trampled-down, treaded ground. Where Late Spring presented this story and devastated me, going right to my heart and laying me out flat. To Late Autumn I'm a bit more...subdued. I never connected to the characters or the situation in any tangible or meaningful way, and my response to the film was less "Holy crap" and more "ho-hum".

{Grade: 6.5/10 (B-/C+) / #24 (of 34) of 1960}

Apparently this is a semi-remake of one of Ozu's own films, which I haven't seen (Late Spring). It's also a little familiar to the most recent Ozu film I watched, 1962's An Autumn Afternoon. Besides having titles that share a word, each involves parents looking for partners for their daughter to marry. In An Autumn Afternoon, it's a father looking for someone for his daughter to marry, and in Late Autumn, it's a mother looking for someone to marry her daughter (with the help of three very entertaining male side characters, who sort of kick off the main plot without being the film's lead characters).

Yasujiro Ozu's films are slow and touching, but never dry or overly sentimental. Personally, I have to be in the right mood to get attached to them, but thankfully, tonight was the right mood. I found this very engaging throughout, and thought the characters were endearing, the visuals were very pleasant to look at, and the mix of drama and humour was pitch-perfect.

There is still the slow pacing that I was aware of here and there, but not too often, all things considered. Part of me felt like 130 minutes was a little long, but another part of me enjoyed spending over two hours with these characters and their important (but not too high stakes) life decisions. I even had to remind myself they were fictional, after I thought to myself right after the movie ended that I hoped a character would be okay in their life going forward... before pinching myself and realising that they're fictional, and there technically is no more life for them to live once the screen fades to black. I think that's the sign of good writing and acting right there.

Akibiyori / Late Autumn (1960) : Brief Review -

An update to Japanese Classic 'Banshun' / 'Late Spring' with a gender change but with the same Classy Impact. Recently, i saw Banshun (1949) and was moved by the film. I never thought that a non-narrative classic of Ozu can ever get inspired version or should I say updated version because the ultimate factism of Banshun was something kind of unavoidable and irreplaceable. I don't hate to say it that i have been proved wrong by the Master Director as he reconstructed the similar story with Akibiyori with the change in Protagonist's gender and yet delivered a Classic film. Actually, this one is more explored version and has wider vision than Banshun and that's obvious because it was made after a decade so the filmmaking went ahead as expected. A widow tries to marry off her daughter with the help of her late husband's three friends. The similar story what we saw in Banshun with the Mother replacing the Father, and those three friends being a great addition. Unlike Banshun, this is far more entertaining with comic touch and quirky humour. It has funny moments created from daily life activities and issues which surely brings laughter when needed. The light tone momentum makes it engaging film and also provides a repeat value. I doubt if can watch Banahun on repeat mode again and again but it's a big YES for Akibiyori. Apart from that it is greatly filled with rich emotions and ethical sentiments that will stir your feelings. That emotional touch in the last 30 minutes is terrifically crafted from all angles. All the actors have done a great job. Ozu never fails to bring the best out of his cast and Akibiyori is yet another undeniable example of it. A grand salute to the legendary filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu for making such heartwarming films on definite family issue like 'Marriage' which has never been told in such classy manners ever by any Director in the cinema world.

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest

Yasujiro Ozu was nearing the end of his nearly 35 year career, and a mostly great career it was too, when he did 1960's 'Late Autumn'. In fact he only did two films after. Those being 1961's 'The End of Summer' and his swansong 1962's 'An Autumn Afternoon' (one of the best swansongs in my opinion from any director), before his untimely death the following year aged just 60. His best films were amazing, and even when he was not at his peak he fared better than most.

'Late Autumn' is not one of Ozu's best films in my view and just slightly misses the extra something that his best work has. Do much prefer 'An Autumn Afternoon', 'Late Spring' and especially 'Tokyo Story', three of his justifiably acclaimed films. When saying that 'Late Autumn' is not one of his best, that is not meaning in any way that it is not a good film. Actually thought that it was still very good, with plenty of what makes his work so impressive evident.

Story-wise, 'Late Autumn' is very slight and somewhat over-familiar territory. It is not much different to what has been seen before with Ozu, being the third film of his to have the arranged marriage theme done a little more insightfully the previous times, and the early scenes drag a bit.

Also thought that some of the male roles were not developed enough and that they were not particularly interesting, outside of being well acted.

There is so much to love about 'Late Autumn' though. The female roles are far more interesting and quite meaty, again feeling real and not stock stereotypes and in situations that are relatable in any day and age. The mother and daughter relationship is very touchingly handled. Although the story is slight and not always perfect in pacing, it is also still very charming and has emotional impact and a sincere humanity. All the acting is great, especially from Setsuko Hara and Yoko Tsucksa bringing a lot of determined heart to their parts. Chishu Ryu excels in a role he always played beautifully.

Have no issues with the script either, which is very thoughtful, gently amusing, sly and heartfelt. Or with the sensitive direction from Ozu, which is also very clever visually. The style is very unmistakably him, complete with some clever transitions. Also nearly forgot to mention that 'Late Autumn' is quite interesting structurally, structured as blocks of linked scenes. The music matches the gentle and sometimes sly mood of the film.

Overall, very good. 8/10

When the patriarch of a family dies, one of his friends decides to find a husband for his daughter, and in the middle, also for the recent widow. A beautiful work by Yasujiro Ozu, on the tradition of Japanese arranged weddings, with a touch of satire and comedy. We see many familiar faces in the cast, from previous films by Ozu, and we can even pretend that they are part of the same cinematographic universe, and thus create a thread with the narratives.

(1960) Late Autumn (In Japanese with English subtitles) DRAMA

Yasujirô Ozu's remaking of "Late Spring", which is based on a novel written by Kôgo Noda called "Chichi to musume" and Ton Satomi about pressures to a 27 year old daughter to marry despite her being objectionable. In this case, the time is 1960, and the environment is more current except that the roles are now reversed, which in the 1949 original theatrical version, it was the daughter feeling pressure by her father, but in this version it's the mother who's played by Setsuko Hara who was also in the original, playing as the daughter felt pressured to marry by her father's associates. Anyways, in this scenario, it's starts off with the aftermath of a funeral, 27 year old Ayako Miwa and her mother Akiko Miwa (Setsuko Hara) have only each other now that that Akiko's husband of the family has been buried. And while there, some of her father's closest working associates see that Akiko's daughter is old enough to get married since she's 27 years old. They then try to accomplish this task by using deception, manipulation and lies to see to it that she settles down even though her mother would be lonely without her, and that the three grown men setting this up already have spouses and servants living with them. As much as I love to see Japanese icon actress Setsuko Hara in color instead of in black and white, this film still felt long since the film excuses the actions of it's working associates about marrying off a 27 or 28 year old woman who's not even related to any of them since theirs an adage in Japan that single girls will become 'old maids' which is only a myth. And instead of handling their own their own problems, why does it concern them to have her get married as quickly as possible which the film doesn't address this question as actress Hara was allowed to put in some of her two cents in, but only for so many scenes. Not as good as "Tokyo Story" since the situations feels much more forced and imposed upon than 1949 "Late Spring".

If this film was made today, even with the context of being in Japan let alone 1960 Japan, it would be slated for being a male domineering piece of nonsense. Three clearly sexist males in the upper middle class of society have nothing better to do than think of marrying off a friend's widow's daughter.

But it is Japan and it is 1960 and this is what happened. It is a beautiful film. Ozu's movies have a rhythm that takes you along a lazy, dreamy journey. I can imagine movie goers of the time beaming at the silly plight of these erstwhile gents while admiring the resolve of the lead woman Hara Setsuko. The fact she later said she didn't enjoy acting and possibly working for Ozu is testament to her professionalism.

It is classic Ozu, similar sets, cast and settings but all with that background soundtrack and deliberate dialogue.

Highly enjoyable if you take it on face value.

As the previous reviewer noted this is an "update" to "Late Spring." Don't know 'bout you but I don't particularly care for my "Late Spring" to be "updated", thanks very much. Nor do I particularly like Setsuko Hara taking over Chischu Ryu's role. Did kinda like the three businessmen/matchmaker/ suitors, though, so I'll give it a B minus for them.

Yasujiro Ozu's 1960 semi-sequel to his Late Spring (from 1949). Casting the same actress from his earlier effort, Setsuko Hara, where she played a woman whose father's machinations to marry her off become a nuisance since all she wants is to stay by his side, here she plays a widow w/a willful daughter whose friends of her late husband feel she's ready for marriage. As they gather one evening to preside over memorial rites for Hara's hubby, the businessmen suddenly decide her daughter is ripe for matrimony but the moment she hears this (especially when one of the tycoon's ambushes her w/one of his underlings who she just brushes off), she in no terms tells Hara for them to mind their business. As things keep getting prickly between the combatants, one of the men suggests one of their own court Hara (since he's a widower) in order to force the daughter to make a decision which backfires badly as the daughter's friend/co-worker gets fed up & tells her in no uncertain terms to grow up & pick a mate (or don't!) even though her prior brush off w/the underling comes around on his own. Finally exploding at Hara for all the romantic shenanigans, her daughter decides to leave the nest which doesn't last long as the film comes to an end & things work out for the best. Even when the daughter devolves into a shouting match at Hara, Hara is implacable, keeping whatever turmoil & anguish under lock & key, letting her innate decency rule the day. Not being very Ozu literate (this may be my fourth feature I've seen of his), it's refreshing to see how decent & low key his traits are even when decent people get caught up in their own forthrightness & w/simple straight forward compositions (the dialogue sequences are edited like the gentlest of tennis matches usually w/the speaker addressing the camera head on), the narratives tend to be easygoing & calming.

If this is your first Ozu film, you're better off starting at the "beginning" with Late Spring. If you've seen that one, or others in the "series", you'll probably like this one for its overall, cinematic refinement and its inclusion of more light-hearted dialogue and performances. If you're new to Japanese cinema altogether, I wouldn't begin with this movie, because it may strike you as boring.

With each of Ozu's movies that I see, it's clear, at least to me, that his intent was variations on a theme. As his career progressed, so did his approach to these variations. The template basically remains the same; but the internal workings of the story, cast, dialogue, surroundings, etc., are elevated just enough to sustain the film as a whole.

I will be watching The End Of Summer and An Autumn Afternoon soon to round out my Ozu experience. If you are a true foreign cinema buff and you don't mind deliberately slow-paced, reserved storytelling, treat yourself to Ozu's filmmaking. He's nothing if not consistent.