Watch Early Summer For Free

Redundant and unnecessary.

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Awesome Movie

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I had seen Tokyo Story and respected it. But Early Summer is a charming, poignant and very human movie that stands the test of time. It is the story of Noriko, a 28-year-old administrative assistant who is under pressure from her family to marry. To put this in perspective, in traditional Japan, a woman married by age 25, or she was considered a "Christmas cake "-- nobody wanted it after the 25th! It is not as common in Japan now for women to face such pressure, especially since so many Japanese women are choosing to stay single, now that they have the money to be independent. However, Noriko's case would have been common up until the current generation of women.While the war is not a character in the movie, there are threads that connect Early Summer to World War II. The movie takes place in 1951, just before Japan emerged from the U.S. occupation, and before Japanese society had its great explosion of wealth in the 1960s. It is a snapshot of a time that no longer exists, although the family conflicts are universal. I plan to add Early Summer to my list of top movies and look forward to viewing it again.

I watch a lot of films; it is part of my work. But I only recently stumbled across those of Ozu. I've now seen nine or ten and I've been blown away. Ozu was a genius. He did something that I've not seen any other director do; he captures the most important moments in people's lives in a realistic fashion. There is a real fly-on-the-wall character to his films, yet he does this in such a way that you genuinely feel like you are intruding on private and personal moments. There are none of the acting-up for the camera or false histrionics that we've got so used to in documentaries. In fact, these are peaceful, superficially mundane stories that somehow get to the very core of humanity. Tokyo Story and Late Spring are excellent films, but to my eyes Early Summer is the greatest. I have never seen such a human dilemma (a daughter leaves home leaving her parents both disappointed that they will no longer have her company and yet proud and relieved that she is getting on with her life) so beautifully and poignantly portrayed. If push comes to shove, I might say that this is the greatest film of all-time.

This is a lovingly directed and acted movie. It's obvious that someone cared when they made this movie. However, while these quality elements are there, I found the movie to be very dull and SOME of the characters inexplicably annoying. Perhaps I am one of the only people who became irritated by how obnoxious the two little boys were in the movie and how incredibly over-indulgent the family was. When the father FINALLY yelled at one of the brats, the jerks ran away and everyone scolded the father. I DON'T like to be around brats in my own life if I can help it, and watching brats in a movie is very unsatisfying for me. Am I the only one who wanted to see these two kids smacked?! Apart from this visceral reaction, I was amazed how LITTLE I reacted to everyone else in the film. I just found myself bored.This film was followed up two years later with Tokyo Story. While many of the same story elements recur in the second film (a sense of alienation, spoiled kids, parents assessing and re-assessing that things have gone well despite a few setbacks, etc.), the overall story is just more compelling and interesting.

The style and pacing of Bakushu is similar to Tokyo Story but unlike the latter, Bakushu's central theme of arranged marriage over individual choice seems awfully dated and for this reason the film does not rank as highly as Tokyo Story. At the end of Tokyo Story both my wife and I felt compelled to examine our relationship(s) with our respective parents. The theme of Tokyo Story (sons and daughters relating to aging parents) is much more universal and therefore much easier to identify cross-culturally. Although the concern the entire family shows for the daughter Noriko's marriage may seem unusual to western viewers it is still very much a reality in many parts of Japan. Once this can be realized or accepted then Bakushu can take on the same poetic beauty that can be found in all of Ozu's work. The cinematic style is another thing altogether and may take a lot of getting used to as will the sure volume of characters which is probably five times as many as can be found in most western films. Ozu bears repeated viewing as his subtlety and outrageously awkward camera placements are an acquired taste but for those who persevere there are many rewards.