Yasujiro Ozu

Ozu is considered a major filmmaker in cinema history due to his visual language and storytelling approach that reshaped the way films could be used to depict everyday life. Melodrama is avoided and key events often take place off screen. His influence is evident in the films of Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Hou_Hsiao-hsien, and other directors using a minimalist style and slow pacing to explore relationships.  

Ozu’s work spanned the eras from silent black and white films in the 1920's to color in the 1960’s. He served as an assistant in the Shochiku studio where its director, Yasujirō Shimazu launched the Shōshimin-eiga film genre that was popularized in the 1930's. These realist movies focused on the daily life of working and middle-class urban Japanese and their relationships within a family. 

Throughout his career Ozu repeatedly featured his favorite actors. Chishū Ryū, the widowed father in Late Spring appeared in many of his films.  Setsuko Hara, a star in the golden age of Japanese cinema was featured in six Ozu films including the "Noriko trilogy" - Late Spring (Banshun 1949), Early Summer (Bakushu, 1951) and Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari, 1953). While all three Noriko characters in the trilogy are single women living in post-war Japan, their stories are unconnected in any other ways. With rigor and restraint Late Spring quietly reveals a heartbreaking drama.