An Autumn Afternoon

The Brief

Yasujiro Ozu’s final film. An Autumn Afternoon turned out to be Ozu’s very last work, and in some way he must have sensed it. The film feels like a summation of the themes he had explored across his 54 films: arranged marriages, the loneliness of old age, children’s duties toward their parents, broken ambitions, and shifting traditions, to name a few. All of this is wrapped in wonderfully melancholic autumn colors, perfectly attuned to the mood of a story that effortlessly touches on life’s big questions. While Ozu is often praised for his female characters, here one of his most frequent male collaborators, Chishû Ryû, delivers an unforgettable performance as a father torn between his fear of loneliness and his wish for his daughter’s happiness. Good to know: * Language: Japanese * Subtitles: English