Yasujirō Ozu Film Two: Early Summer (1951)

The second movie in Ozu's Noriko Trilogy, a series of films that stars the fabulous Setsuko Hara as a character named Noriko, although none of the films have the same characters. Thematically, many of Ozu's later films feel connected due to their emphasis on women's roles in post-war Japan and their similar English titles. They often deal with relatives who want to help marry off their single family members. In this one, the character Noriko is living in her family's home when her uncle (Kokuten Kodu) suggests that since she is 28, she should get married. Ozu always handles this common theme with subtlety and understanding of family dynamics. 

Complications arise fairly quickly, and the family's plans go awry. They want Noriko to marry her boss's forty-year-old businessman friend, Mr. Manabe, but she has different plans. The mother of her widowed childhood friend Kenkichi Yabe (Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi) asks Noriko to marry her son. When she says yes, it alienates her family because they see him as a poor match financially and regret that she will have to move away from Tokyo. 

Like many Ozu films, shots of urban and rural settings show the growing divide between the family and eventual acceptance of how things must change. As the family resigns themselves to what life will look like when Noriko moves away, Ozu builds closure by visually showing that change is inevitable. Realistic and knowing performances from Hara, Chishu Ryu (another Ozu regular), and Kuniko Mayake reinforce how the family finds acceptance.