The End of Summer

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The End of Summer
Theatrical release poster
Directed byYasujirō Ozu
Written byKōgo Noda
Yasujirō Ozu
Produced bySanezumi Fujimoto
Masakatsu Kaneko
Tadahiro Teramoto
StarringNakamura Ganjirō II
Setsuko Hara
Yoko Tsukasa
CinematographyAsakazu Nakai
Edited byKoichi Iwashita
Music byToshiro Mayuzumi
Distributed byToho
Release date
  • 29 October 1961 (1961-10-29)
Running time
103 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguagesJapanese,English

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[edit]

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.

Cast[edit]

Actor Role
Nakamura Ganjirō II Kohayagawa Manbei
Setsuko Hara Akiko, Manbei's widowed daughter-in-law
Yoko Tsukasa Noriko, Manbei's youngest daughter
Michiyo Aratama Fumiko, Manbei's oldest daughter
Keiju Kobayashi Hisao, Fumiko's husband
Chieko Naniwa Sasaki Tsune
Reiko Dan Yuriko, her daughter
Haruko Sugimura Kato Shige, Manbei's sister-in-law from Nagoya
Hisaya Morishige Isomura Eiichirou, Akiko's suitor
Daisuke Katō Kitagawa Yanosuke, "the uncle from Osaka," Manbei's brother-in-law
Akira Takarada Teramoto Tadashi
Kyū Sazanka Yamaguchi, Chief clerk
Yū Fujiki Maruyama Rokutarou, Assistant clerk
Haruko Togo Kitagawa Teruko, Yanosuke's wife
Yumi Shirakawa Nakanishi Takako, Noriko's friend
Tatsuo Endō Hayashi Seizo
Masahiko Shimazu Masao, Hisao and Fumiko's son
Chishū Ryū Farmer
Yūko Mochizuki Farmer

Production[edit]

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[edit]

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]

Home media[edit]

In 2007, The Criterion Collection released the film as part of the DVD box set Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu.[7]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "小早川家の秋". Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  2. ^ "IMDB.com: Awards for The End of Summer". imdb.com. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
  3. ^ Cohen, Doron. "The End of Summer - On Brightness and Darkness". Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  4. ^ Schwartz, Dennis (June 21, 2007). "The deft blending of comedy and tragedy". Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  5. ^ "Eugène Green". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved February 15, 2017.
  6. ^ "BFI". www.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016.
  7. ^ "Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved March 20, 2024.

External links[edit]