1961 Japanese film
The End of Summer (小早川家の秋, Kohayagawa-ke no aki, lit. "Autumn of the Kohayagawa family") is a 1961 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu for Toho Films.[1] It was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival.[2] The film was his penultimate; only An Autumn Afternoon (1962) followed it, which he made for Shochiku Films.
Plot
Manbei Kohayagawa (Nakamura Ganjirō II), the head of a small sake brewery outside Kyoto, has two daughters and a widowed daughter-in-law. His daughter-in-law, Akiko (Setsuko Hara), and his younger daughter, Noriko (Yoko Tsukasa), live in Osaka. Akiko helps out at an art gallery and has a son, Minoru. Noriko, unmarried, is an office worker. Manbei's other daughter, Fumiko (Michiyo Aratama), lives with him. Her husband, Hisao, helps at the brewery and they have a young son, Masao.
Manbei asks his brother-in-law Kitagawa (Daisuke Katō) to find Akiko a husband, and Kitagawa has Akiko meet a friend of his, Isomura Ei'ichiro (Hisaya Morishige), a widower, at a bar. Isomura is enthusiastic about the match, but Akiko is hesitant. Manbei also asks Kitagawa to arrange a matchmaking session for Noriko, who is in love with Teramoto (Akira Takarada), but doesn't express her love since Teramoto is moving to Sapporo to be an assistant professor.
During the summer Manbei sneaks out repeatedly to meet his former mistress, Tsune Sasaki (Chieko Naniwa). Tsune's westernized grown-up daughter Yuriko may or may not be Manbei's daughter. When Fumiko finds out that Manbei has been seeing Tsune again she confronts her father, but he denies the affair.
The Kohayagawa family meets for a memorial service for their late mother at Arashiyama. Manbei has a heart attack after quarrelling with Fumiko over Tsune, but wakes up feeling refreshed the next day. Akiko asks Noriko about another recent matchmaking session, and while Noriko admits to having had fun, she reveals that she is still pining for Teramoto.
On a secret journey to and from Osaka with Tsune, Manbei has another heart attack and dies. Tsune informs his daughters. The ailing Kohayagawa brewery is to be merged with a business rival's, while Noriko decides to go to Sapporo to seek out Teramoto. The Kohayagawa family gathers to reminisce about Manbei's life as his body is cremated.
Production
In order to secure its contract stars Setsuko Hara and Yoko Tsukasa from Toho for his previous film, Late Autumn, Ozu agreed to direct The End of Summer for the studio, making it his only Toho film and one of his three films not produced for Shochiku (the others are Floating Weeds for Daiei and The Munekata Sisters for Shintoho). As a result, the film is filled with Toho players, many of whom took the opportunity to appear in their only Ozu film, including marquee headliners Hisaya Morishige and Akira Takarada taking small roles. Ozu added a scene at the end to accommodate Toho's star Yūko Mochizuki, who asked to be in the film, as well as his signature actor Chishū Ryū.[3]
Reception
Dennis Schwartz praised The End of Summer as a "deft blending of comedy and tragedy", writing that Manbei's "lively antics give the film a wonderfully playful tone."[4]
The French film-maker Eugène Green, who gave the film one of his ten votes in the 2012 Sight & Sound directors' poll of the world's best films, wrote that it "stands out as a meditation on death, with certain shots of an extraordinary power and beauty. The scenes between the two sisters are deeply moving."[5]
Another director, Ashim Ahluwalia, mentioned the film as one of his top ten of all time, writing that "End of Summer is a poignant, near-perfect film about endings, made a year before Ozu died."[6]
