Late Autumn Quotes

Shuzo Taguchi: Time flies. How long has it been for you?

Seiichiro Hirayama: What?

Shuzo Taguchi: Since your wife passed away?

Seiichiro Hirayama: Four, nearly five years.

Shuzo Taguchi: [pouring Mr. Hirayama a cup of tea] Look! The tea stalks stood on end.

Seiichiro Hirayama: Is that so? That's a good sign.

Shuzo Taguchi: We're in a temple. It might mean your wife is coming for you.

Shuzo Taguchi: The pickled bracken? They were great! The older one gets, the more one enjoys such food.

Shukichi Miwa: That's true.

Shuzo Taguchi: Hijiki and carrots, shitake and dried radish, fresh tofu and deep-fried tofu.

Seiichiro Hirayama: What about beefsteak and pork cutlets?

[everybody laughs]

Shuzo Taguchi: You're late.

Soichi Mamiya: Yes, a bit.

Seiichiro Hirayama: It just started.

Soichi Mamiya: Then I'm too early.

Seiichiro Hirayama: I'm sorry for speaking my mind so freely.

Akiko Miwa: Not at all. It was a pleasant time.

Shuzo Taguchi: She really is beautiful.

Seiichiro Hirayama: I love talking to girls of that age.

Shuzo Taguchi: And the daughter's not bad either.

Soichi Mamiya: Ah, you meant her mother?

Shuzo Taguchi: Hasn't changed a bit.

Soichi Mamiya: Truly beautiful.

Seiichiro Hirayama: Yes, she is. But her daughter is nice too.

Soichi Mamiya: Sure, she's nice. On the other hand, Akiko is pst 40 already.

Shuzo Taguchi: If given a choice, I'd take the mother. A fine woman.

Soichi Mamiya: Yes, she is.

Seiichiro Hirayama: Are you serious?

Shuzo Taguchi: Absolutely. It's true what they say about men with beautiful wives dying young.

Soichi Mamiya: Miwa paid a steep price for his good fortune. She's grown even more attractive recently.

Shuzo Taguchi: You noticed too?

Soichi Mamiya: How could I not?

Shuzo Taguchi: You got to be dense not to feel it.

Seiichiro Hirayama: I feel it. Just not as much as you guys.

Wakamatsu's Owner: You men should've bought aphrodisiacs, not cold medicine.

Shuzo Taguchi: That's true.

Soichi Mamiya: We didn't know about such things. Unlike youngsters today, we were pure and naive.

Wakamatsu's Owner: I wonder.

Shuzo Taguchi: A man married to her might die young. Her body's so sturdy!

Soichi Mamiya: Like a pro wrestler.

Seiichiro Hirayama: If she got him in a head scissor...

Shuzo Taguchi: He'd never survive. His head would be crushed!

[all laugh]

Nobuko: In marriage, you eventually just give up.

Shuzo Taguchi: That's true for both sides. Yoko needs to learn some patience.

Nobuko: Marriage is really tedious when you think about it.

Shuzo Taguchi: You can't ask for too much. There'll be no end to it.

Shuzo Taguchi: Who told you that?

Nobuko: You did.

Shuzo Taguchi: I said that? When?

Nobuko: When you were drunk, celebrating Yoko's birth.

Shuzo Taguchi: Really? I said that? I used to be so honest.

Nobuko: Yes, more than now.

Akiko Miwa: Mr. Taguchi is very amusing.

Soichi Mamiya: Too amusing! Everything he touches turns into a farce.

Fumiko: If Ayako gets married, Akiko will be left all alone.

Soichi Mamiya: She'll get by somehow. She'll have no choice.

Fumiko: Is Akiko as beautiful as ever?

Soichi Mamiya: Yes, very beautiful. But I like Ayako more. She's so pure.

Fumiko: Oh, really?

Akiko Miwa: You wanted to do some shopping? Shall we go?

Ayako Miwa: You need needles, right?

Akiko Miwa: And one of the seven Ts.

Ayako Miwa: What? Ah, you mean tarako cod roe.

Akiko Miwa: You're just like your father!

Ayako Miwa: How so?

Akiko Miwa: You like to be fully equipped wherever you go. Your father even took pumice stones to the hot springs.

Ayako Miwa: To scrape the soles of his feet -- I remember that. Let's go to the hot springs again.

Akiko Miwa: Do you remember when we went to Shuzenji Temple and all the carp in the pond at the inn?

Ayako Miwa: They gobbled up all the peanuts I threw in.

Akiko Miwa: The next morning those carp were dead -- puffy and white.

Ayako Miwa: That really scared me, but Father just laughed.

Akiko Miwa: That was the last trip with him. The maple leaves were so beautiful.

Akiko Miwa: You have to marry eventually.

Ayako Miwa: No, I don't. I'm happy just as I am. But Mother, if I did find someone, what would you do?

Akiko Miwa: What do you mean?

Ayako Miwa: Would you be lonely?

Akiko Miwa: I'd miss you, but it can't be helped. I'd have to make do. It was the same with my mother. That's how it is with parents and children.

Ayako Miwa: I hate it when you tease me like this!

Soichi Mamiya: I'm not teasing. I'm serious.

Ayako Miwa: For me, love and marriage don't necessarily go hand in hand.

Soichi Mamiya: What's that supposed to mean?

Ayako Miwa: Well, that means...

Soichi Mamiya: You're for having affairs?

Ayako Miwa: That's not what I mean!

Soichi Mamiya: Really? I'm sorry.

Soichi Mamiya: You must really love your mother.

Ayako Miwa: I guess I do. We still quarrel a lot.

Soichi Mamiya: That's proof of your love. Parents and children who aren't close can't even squabble.

Shuzo Taguchi: Young women are straightforward these days, though a few are pretty odd.

Seiichiro Hirayama: But I can see her side.

Shuzo Taguchi: How so?

Seiichiro Hirayama: About love and marriage being separate.

Soichi Mamiya: That makes for a cold world.

Shuzo Taguchi: That's so crazy it just might work.

Seiichiro Hirayama: Stop kidding around. I'm not ready for that kind of thing. She's the widow of an old friend!

Shuzo Taguchi: Don't be so straight-laced.

Seiichiro Hirayama: Forget it! Out of the question. It's downright immoral.

Soichi Mamiya: What's so immoral? You're a widower. She's a widow.

Seiichiro Hirayama: Did you feel the earthquake last nigh?

Soichi Mamiya: Was there one? I didn't feel it.

Seiichiro Hirayama: Yes, there was. But just a small one.

Seiichiro Hirayama: It's quite inconvenient living alone.

Soichi Mamiya: Inconvenient? You have your housekeeper.

Seiichiro Hirayama: That's true. Still there are certain things...

Soichi Mamiya: You mean - an itch you can't scratch?

Seiichiro Hirayama: Yeah, you might say that.

Soichi Mamiya: So you suddenly started to itch?

Seiichiro Hirayama: I guess.

Soichi Mamiya: Hirayama's serious.

Shuzo Taguchi: You know, she'd be wasted on him. She's so beautiful. You should have seen her on the verge of tears.

Soichi Mamiya: Really?

Shuzo Taguchi: Like a delicate flower battered by a rainstorm. She peeled an apple for me with those lovely white hands.

Soichi Mamiya: Did you eat it?

Shuzo Taguchi: Yes. It was delicious.

Michiko: Kids these days...

Shotaru Goto: Mine are terrible. We were better at that age. Girls' Opera was as crazy as we got.

Michiko: That's right. "Mon Paris" and "When Violets Bloom Again."

Shotaru Goto: Now it's all rockabilly and Elvis Presley. No wonder girls arrange flowers in painted tin cans now.

Shukichi Miwa: He's peachy.

Yuriko Sasaki: Peachy?

Yuriko Sasaki: We're no match for the girls these days.

Nobuko: They really are something! Fatty tuna, please.

Yuriko Sasaki: Clams for me.

Shukichi Miwa: Why weren't we invited to her reception? We should have been.

Seiichiro Hirayama: She's probably forgotten us.

Shukichi Miwa: We all joined the company at the same time. We were so close.

Seiichiro Hirayama: Yes, but people grow apart over time.

Shukichi Miwa: Then marriage is the worst. Are men like that too?

Seiichiro Hirayama: I don't know.

Shukichi Miwa: If our friendship ended because one of us got married, I'd be miserable. Marriage is the worst.

Seiichiro Hirayama: You're right.

Shukichi Miwa: Making fools of us!