An Autumn Afternoon
dir. Yasujirō Ozu · 1962
The experience of life often involves the struggle to balance personal desires with the responsibilities we have to those we love.
"An Autumn Afternoon" elegantly captures the bittersweet transition of familial bonds through its serene storytelling and poignant observations. Yasujirō Ozu's masterful direction invites viewers to contemplate the complexities of love, duty, and personal freedom within the confines of tradition.
Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year-old daughter. Gradually, he comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
Full synopsisspoilers
In the early 60's in Tokyo, the widower Hirayama is a former captain from the Japanese navy that works as a manager of a factory and lives with his twenty-four year-old daughter Michiko and his son Kazuo in his house. His older son Koichi is married with Akiko that are compulsive consumers and Akiko financially controls their expenses. Hirayama frequently meets his old friends Kawai and Professor Horie, who is married with a younger wife, to drink in a bar. When their school teacher Sakuma comes to a reunion of Hirayama with old school mates, they learn that the old man lives with his daughter that stayed single to take care of him. Michiko lives a happy life with her father and her brother, but Hirayama feels that it is time to let her go and tries to arrange a marriage for her.
