Early Spring
(Soshun)
With Chikage Awashima, Keiko Kishi, Chishu Ryu.
Japan, 1956, 35mm, black & white, 144 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Ozu’s longest film, and one of his richest, Early Spring followed Tokyo Story after a three-year hiatus. The hope promised by the title quickly fades as Shoji, a recent graduate, becomes an office worker and gradually realizes that he is trapped—in his job, his marriage, his predictable life. His attempt to forestall the inevitable future of disillusionment and loneliness by dallying with a young, flirtatious typist named Goldfish leads to separation from his wife and, finally, a new position in a rural outpost. Ozu treats what he called “the pathos of the white-collar life” with characteristic reticence and clear-eyed sympathy; his meticulous portrayal of the rhythms of a “salaryman’s” life—the endless cycle of commuting, office hell, and drinking—achieves a kind of quotidian grandeur.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Woman of Tokyo / A Mother Should Be Loved
Where Now are the Dreams of Youth?
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
Record of a Tenement Gentleman
I Was Born But...
The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice
An Autumn Afternoon
