Ozu’s last film is a beautiful piece that centres on middle-class widower Shuhei (Chishu Ryu) and his efforts to marry off his only daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita), who lives at home with Shuhei and her younger brother Kazuo (Shinichirô Mikami). With his older 'Westernised’ son Koichi (Keiji Sada) and his wife Akiko (Mariko Okada), Shuhei pursues the possibilities for a suitable groom, while Michiko observes the romantic intrigue with a mix of bewilderment, repressed fear and not a little frustration.
Like much of Ozu’s work, this seems a film fixed on the idea that a lot of what motivates our life choices is the feeling that we need to leave something 'behind" before we die. Indeed it’s a feeling of guilt and obligation that first compels Shuhei to find a 'match’ for Michiko. Early on in the story Shuhei encounters an old teacher Sakuma (Eijiro Tono) at a class re-union. It turns out that Sakuma has a grown up daughter, never married, who now spends her time picking up after her ageing dad"¦ Shuhei can’t abide the thought of an old age that sees his own daughter facing a similar fate.
Ozu pursues each story thread so that we see and fully understand the pressures peculiar to each of the characters, all of who represent their generation. Despite the dark undercurrents and the melodramatic outline of its story events, An Autumn Afternoon is pure Ozu; it has a lightness of touch and an almost casual air about the way the action progresses. The subplot with Shuhei and his old pals – one of whom has married a much younger woman – provides at lot of the film’s humour and pathos and throws into high relief one of its major themes; joy in life must not be overlooked or taken for granted.
The major extra here is a two-hour documentary from Japan about the life and work of Ozu, I Lived But"¦ from 1983. Sound and image are fine.
