An Autumn Afternoon

The Brief

An Autumn Afternoon would become Ozu’s final film, and in some way, he must have felt it. It serves almost as a summation of all the themes he had explored throughout his 54 films – arranged marriages, the loneliness of old age, the duties of children toward their parents, broken ambitions, and changing traditions, to name a few. He wraps all of this in wonderfully melancholic autumn colors, perfectly suited to the mood of a story that gently touches on life’s great questions. While Ozu’s female characters are often highlighted, here one of his most frequent male collaborators, Chishû Ryû, delivers an unforgettable performance as the father torn between his fear of loneliness and his wish for his daughter’s happiness.