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Product Description
Tokyo Story director Yasujiro Ozu s hugely influential and award-winning masterpiece, Late Spring, is a tender meditation on family politics, sacrifice and the status quo. Noriko (Setsuko Hara) and her father, Professor Somiya (Chishu Ryu) live together in perfect harmony, but old certainties are put at risk when an interfering aunt raises the question of marriage. Introducing Ozu s popular Noriko character, Late Spring poignantly examines the gradual compromise between modernity and tradition and is now available for the first time on Blu-ray from the BFI..
Contains full length feature The Only Son, Ozu s first sound film, as an extra (DVD only)
Extra Features:
- Dual Format Edition: includes both Blu-ray and the DVD versions of the main feature
- Contains full length feature The Only Son, Ozu s first sound film, as an extra (DVD only)
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Extensive illustrated booklet featuring essays and film notes
- Dolby Digital mono audio (320 kbps)
Product Description
United Kingdom released, Blu-Ray/Region B DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Dolby Linear PCM ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Booklet, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Late Spring (1949) Noriko is 27 years old and is still living with her father Somiya, a widower. Noriko just recovered from an illness she developed in the war, and now the important question pops up: when will Noriko start thinking about marriage? Everybody who is important in her life tries to talk her into it: her father, her aunt, a girlfriend. But Noriko doesn't want to get married, she seems extremely happy with her life. She wants to stay with her father to take care of him. After all, she knows best of his manners and peculiarities. But Noriko's aunt doesn't want to give up. She arranges a partner for her and thinks of a plan that will convince Noriko her father can be left alone. The Only Son (1936) In 1923, in the province of Shinshu, the widow and simple worker of a silk factory Tsune Nonomiya (O-Tsune) decides to send her only son to Tokyo for having a better education. Thirteen years later, she visits her son Ryosuke Nonomiya (Shinichi Himori), and finds that he is a poor and frustrated night-school teacher with a wife, Sugiko (Yoshiko Tsubouchi), and a baby boy. ...Late Spring / The Only Son ( Banshun (Kathysterimeni anoixi) / Hitori musuko ) (Blu-Ray)
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Philoctetes
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Blu-ray
I would recommend Late Spring to everyone capable of empathy, even those of us sorely tested by the stately progress of Ozu's supposed magnum opus, Tokyo Story (1953). The latter also features Setsuko Hara as Noriko and also Chishû Ryû, but in addition to being notably swifter, Late Spring focuses its attention more on the unmarried Noriko, rather than on the saintly but dull old couple visiting Tokyo. Noriko 'should' be married by now, according to various elders, but all she wants is to stay with her dad. If it is only human nature to want to marry and procreate, it's only human nature to interfere in the lives of others.
One or two comical elements aside - some of the music is corny and the significance of the Noh play will be lost on most westerners - Late Spring is occasionally funny but often painfully sad, more overtly emotional than Tokyo Story's narrative of disappointment. One might be tempted to sneer at Noriko's sunny disposition, but when they start to pester her the smile vanishes: the effect is shocking. Ozu has the gift of making one remember how to appreciate human emotions rather than dismiss them as a loss of composure.
Anyway, it is a portrait of a vanished world, one whose restraint makes Jane Austen costume dramas look downright licentious. Fascinating and haunting viewing.
One or two comical elements aside - some of the music is corny and the significance of the Noh play will be lost on most westerners - Late Spring is occasionally funny but often painfully sad, more overtly emotional than Tokyo Story's narrative of disappointment. One might be tempted to sneer at Noriko's sunny disposition, but when they start to pester her the smile vanishes: the effect is shocking. Ozu has the gift of making one remember how to appreciate human emotions rather than dismiss them as a loss of composure.
Anyway, it is a portrait of a vanished world, one whose restraint makes Jane Austen costume dramas look downright licentious. Fascinating and haunting viewing.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
I haven't yet watched the main feature Late Spring, but I wanted to let people know what a great film The Only Son is. And it is indeed on the blu-ray disc here, although of course a Japanese film of this vintage is hardly going to be hi-def. The film builds slowly as a single mother makes sacrifices to give her only son a good education. The film then jumps to the present day - Tokyo 1936 - when the mother visits the grown-up boy. I wouldn't want to give too much away, but suffice it to say the themes of filial/maternal love are dealt with in a moving, almost gut-wrenching manner. Ambition and disappointment are to the fore here, until everyone discovered a greater truth. Although the ending is not as entirely clear cut as that but much more subtly real. In short a marvelous movie and an emotional ride.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Mario
Format:Blu-ray
...in order to demonstrate what it is to be a human being in a state of steady affluence and the problems which then we face; the subtle, painful lonely moments which are, if we are honest, unavoidable yet, here, beautiful and shared through art. This film is one of the most touching experiences I have had through 'art'.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Richly rewarding
Once again, as it would be with his most celebrated film, Tokyo Story (number 3 on the Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time list, while this could only manage a feeble 15th),... Read more
Published 12 days ago by R. J. Harvey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Late Spring
Received the goods in the shape as advertised and in th time frame as promised. Excellent all round.
Published on 15 Sep 2010 by Dr. Vijay Kumar
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wrong information about format
For Customers looking forward to seeing the difficult to find extra feature film -The Only Son- those owning a Blu-ray player may be interested to know that the information printed... Read more
Published on 13 July 2010 by Red Hand
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