An Autumn Afternoon

Saw An Autumn Afternoon, a film by Yasujiro Ozu which is extremely similar (in content anyway) to his earlier Late Spring.  As in that film, this film is about an aging father who is being looked after by his daughter.  As his friends and sons and secretaries start pairing up, he worries that his daughter will become an old maid, looking after him.

With Late Spring, the central conflict was between the aging father wanting what's best for his daughter vs the daughter not wanting to abandon her father.  In this film however, it's less about conflict.  There is that tension, but it's far in the background.  Most of the film follows the father as he hangs out with his drinking buddies, holding parties for old teachers and chatting about their wives.  We meditate more on different kinds of relationships and states of being, in regards to marriage.  Newlyweds, fiancés, an old man with a young wife, an old man with an old maid daughter.

Once again, the recent war is brought up.  The father was a commander in the war, and he states at one point that maybe it was a good thing that they lost after all.  This is a surprising opinion for a commander to have but this attitude mirrors his own desire to find a husband for his daughter.  He will be alone and humbled, yes, but perhaps it is for the best.

The film is quaint and pretty, sentimental and sweet.  The action mostly follows this genially smiling old man as he smiles on the relationships of others and visits old friends.  This is a film almost entirely without conflict.

It's a well-shot and well made film.  I can't say it's the most gripping, but neither is it a bore, and it's not as treacly as some of (say) Kurosawa's films (eg).  It's a sort of unfocused meditation on family growing up and growing apart.  Bittersweet and sentimental.