Watching "Late Spring" at the China Film Archive, I thought it was just a well-known family drama, but unexpectedly I almost sobbed.
Both Hou Hsiao-hsien and Jia Zhangke once said that "Late Spring" is one of their favorite movies.
The plot of "Late Spring" is actually quite simple: daughter Noriko lives with her father, living a dull but happy life. It was not until the people around reminded his father that Noriko was 27 that his father began to propose marriage, but Noriko was unwilling to break her current life and wanted to refuse a blind date.
Today, 72 years later, the age of 27 is still called an old age in small cities, and many women finally choose to refuse marriage. In the film, the father's previous words to persuade Noriko are not unreasonable (appeared in Noriko's trip with her father before marriage).
"Late Spring" seems to be quite simple, but it includes many details: the father will ask Noriko to bring towels when he washes his hands, Noriko has an ambiguous relationship with his father's student uniform, and the aunt picked up the wallet at the temple and said that it would be returned but stuffed it into the clothes Happy Escape... If you take the time to read everyone's comments on the Internet, you will find that such a movie of daily life has various interpretations: the relationship between father and Ayako, Noriko and Hattori may have an affair, etc. Wait.
If you watch "Mai Qiu" together, you will even feel that "Late Spring" is just Ozu's practice, the same core story, with characters and emotions in "Mai Qiu". But I prefer "Late Spring", the emotions are not disturbed, but expressed more purely and strongly, which makes the audience even more moved.
Today, 72 years later, there are more women who are unwilling to get married, but most of them are for themselves. Seeing Noriko, who is unwilling to leave her father like a child, reminds me of my childhood. So thank Ozu for not letting Noriko's husband show his face, because in the heart of every daughter who loves her father, who can be better than her own father? This is also the back of the father and Noriko. When the father looks at the sad Noriko who ran to the front from the back, he will also feel the melancholy in the father's heart when he is about to lose his daughter.
Off-topic: Setsuko Hara, the actor who plays Kiko, has never been married, always reminds me of Jin Min's "Millennium Actress"
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