Late Spring

Chishu Ryu, who appears in minor roles in most of Yasujiro Ozu’s earlier films, took his place in the later films as the director’s persona, with Setsuko Hara as perhaps the feminine counterpart. In Late Spring, a widowed father believes that his daughter spurns marriage in order to remain with him. He allows her to think that he plans to remarry, though he has no intention of doing so, and she finally accepts an offer of marriage herself. The hint of a smile on Ryu’s face as he hears the bell of the shoji door (his daughter, as always) opens the viewer to the full emotional force of the narrative machinations just set in motion.