What the meaning of Maiqiu is very vague, and of course it does not refer to the wheat in autumn. When I was a child, I had the experience of using wheat seedlings as leeks. We are too far from nature, farther than a dynasty. Perhaps the title, like the ambiguity of Japanese, represents a cultural identity of Japan. This naturalistic title also shows that although it is about urban life, it has a strong natural wind.
This film with strong Ozu characteristics still focuses on marrying a daughter and discusses family issues. Different from Jane Austen's British-style family concept, Ozu Yasujiro's ideal family concept is that people are strictly dependent on each other with a strong order. Marriage is an essential means of human continuation, but in the East, marriage is still more regarded as a big thing, and it is not dare to underestimate it. This is good, and good is great.
Setsuko Hara's smile is as beautiful as a goddess. Ozu's perspective on three generations is actually quite interesting.
In the few Ozu films I've seen, the children are naughty and cunning, perhaps this reflects the attitude of a man who has never married for his entire life toward children. Children in oriental families are always spoiled by their parents, and there is always a kind of animal inconceivable in their characters.
The scene where Noriko and her old classmates meet in the restaurant is very interesting, and the four little women, married and unmarried, are naturally divided into two factions. Married people will make fun of unmarried people, especially in the East where familyism is paramount. The unmarried people have a sour grape mentality and do not understand why married people complain about the drag of marriage while everyone jumps in with their eyes closed. Aside from the spiritual level, marriage is in an economic sense, and if you probe deeper, it exists only for the purpose of continuing the meaning of future generations. Two pillars like this since ancient times. And the love of the spiritual level, the two hearts are happy, like the veneer dressed outside the frame, it is easy to fall off. If the two pillars of marriage still exist, this marriage is nothing more than ugly, not so beautiful and grand. If the pillars do not exist anymore, the wall will collapse and the house will be destroyed.
Noriko's brother was very dissatisfied with her mother because of her sister's marriage, and her mother's expression was very lonely, because she felt that her daughter was pitiful. The last shot of the movie is the old couple looking at the bride walking in the field in front of the door with a calm expression. That field is a wheat field.
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