Sôshun

Soshun aka Early Spring (Yasujiro OZU, 1956)

This was made after a more than two-year gap following his preceding film, "Tokyo Story" (during which period he spent a lot of time working on a film that was to be directed by Kinuyo Tanaka -- which had become bogged down by all sorts of business politics). Ozu re-visits the world of the young "salaryman" for the first time since the 30s -- and doesn't particularly like what he finds. Ozu looks at the corrosive impact of the transition to a corporation-centered existence on white collar working men.

Shoji Sugiyama (Ryo IKEBE) and Masako (Ckikage AWASHIMA) have been married around 7 or 8 years, but are childless (their only son having died several years earlier). Shoji has shifted his focus to his career and pretty much disregards his wife (or at least takes her very much for granted). After Shoji becomes involved in dalliance with a co-worker, Chiyo, better known as "Goldfish" (Keiko Kishi), Masako decides she's had enough...

This film is one of Ozu's most earnest. While there are some touches of humor (for instance, Shoji's reunion with his army buddies, after which he is followed home by two of them), the overall tone is serious. Kumeko Urabe provides some earthy practicality as Masako's mother (now a noodle shop vendor -- unclear what she did prior to her husband's death years before) and Chishu Ryu (as Shoji's mentor, in business exile in the boondocks -- but not entirely regretting it) provides quasi-paternal guidance.

This film teaches a message Japan largely ignored, business relationships are not an adequate substitute for family ties. With the recent recognition (in Japan) of the phenomenon of "death by overwork", the message of the film might be considered especially timely.

I have seen quite a few of Yasujiro Ozu's films and while I enjoyed this film, it is not among his best--mostly because of its sluggish pacing. If the film had about 20 minutes cut from it, I really think it would have worked better. Now I am not against long films--provided they merit the additional time. This is one of the few Ozu films I had to force myself to finish, as I found it hard to concentrate on what was occurring--a first for one of his films.

The film is set in a Japanese company where there are lots of lower to mid-level drones doing their jobs. The theme, at times, is that no matter how hard you work and devote yourself to your job, you will one day die...and most likely not appreciated or sufficiently recompensed for your hard work. A depressing view, to be sure, as the film was apparently trying to make a point about alienation during the industrial age (a common theme in Ozu films).

In addition to this theme, there is another plot involving one of the workers having an affair with a co-worker. What actually made this pretty interesting and poignant is that the man's marriage was already in trouble, as their son had died several years ago (as a small child) and the couple became distant in the aftermath. Also interesting is the reaction of the man's co-workers when they think they've discovered the affair (though they still aren't sure). The men all seem to condemn them very quickly and say this is disruptive to the company. BUT, they also later sound incredibly envious of the couple! Additionally, instead of confronting both of them, they only invite in the woman---an interesting double standard.

Overall, the film is typical in style to what you'd expect from an Ozu film. The camera remains stationary and slightly lower than the actors and there are no lens movements. Instead, scenes change by cuts, not by a roving camera. Also, the film's subjects are the countless lower-level white collar workers. Atypical is the film's slow pace (slow even for Ozu) as well as the subject matter--adultery is not something he talked about often.

So is it worth seeing? Well, anything by Ozu is worth seeing as far as I am concerned. Just don't expect quite the same magic and poignant moments like you'd find in such classics as FLOATING WEEDS or LATE SPRING.

"Early spring" is a film from the latter part of the career of Yasujiro Ozu. Normally the age of the lead character develops in line with the age of Ozu himself. With a lead character in its early 30s "Early spring" is an exception.

The films of Yasujiro Ozu are all about family relations. An extramarital relationship, as in "Early spring", is very rare and for Ozu rather daring (how innocent it may seem to us in todays eyes).

Both exceptions may well have something to do with a rivalry between the two Japanese studios Shochiku (the studio of Ozu) and Daiei, were Shuchiko was losing ground to Daiei.

More unexpected to me was the negative tone about office work in the movie. At the beginning of the movie we see clerks travelling to their office and the emphasis is laid on their massiveness and anonymity. Later in the film some office clerks are talking to each other and confess that their work is rather dull and only the game of mahjong after work is done is giving them some fun. Last but not least at the end of the film some older colleages advise the lead character not to put all his cards on his career. His mentor even says that it is more important to be loyal to your wife than to your employer, because the last mentioned loyalty is bound to be unreciprocal. Al this is a far cry from what I thought to know about work ethic during Japanese reconstruction. As a faithfull chronicler of the Japanese middle class post World War II Ozu probably sensed the changing cultue correctly.

The technique and form of Ozu is, as always, impeccable. The tranquil pace, the intermediate shots without characters and the careful composition of the images in the characteristic low camera angle Ozu style. All this is in no way inferior to "Tokyo story" (1953), his more well known masterpiece from 3 years earlier.

Soshun / Early Spring (1956) : Brief Review -

Ozu's handful take on working class issues is more about adjustments than ethics and encouragement. Soshun is another fine film from Yasujiro Ozu who is master in handling such stories based on small parts life but it definitely lacks the walling and hardness. A young man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital romance. The film is about three things, one is passionless married life, two is corporate office issues faced by working class post World War and third is unethical Extramarital affair. Usually, we see Ozu handling one story at a time and giving full justice to it but here he gets three stories and that's why couldn't give full justice to any of them. In numerical analysis i would say he gives 70% justice to each story and those remaining 30% is what we didn't expect from him. The bigger problem is, it doesn't have any inspiring and encouraging ending which might have given hope to be better in life, rather it is about getting yourself adjusted with the wrongs. I don't see how a wife can really manage to live with the husband after knowing his affair or could it be really possible even in imagination? The better side of the film is it's non-narrative nature just like other Ozu films. You can't blame him much because he doesn't choose narratives, instead he chooses just a small part from a life and brings it to the silver screen. One can't deny Ozu's master storytelling here and for that he deserves Full Marks. Enough about Ozu, actually Soshun is a much better film because of its actors. I mean watching every actor performing seamless even after weakened storyline is such a great thing, no? The cinematography in Ozu films never disappoints and Soshun is no difference. Yet another triumph for the artist behind the camera. In simple words, it's Very Good and that's the best i can say.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest

Another character-focused drama from Yasujiro Ozu, and while I don't think it's among his very best, I still found plenty to like here.

It's mainly about a married couple who've been through some tough times, and I believe are in their mid to late 30s. The husband begins feeling interested in a young woman, but it doesn't play out the way you might expect; it feels a whole lot more real, and without melodrama.

I feel like the film as a whole tries to capture those final few confusing years before middle age definitively starts. It's not something I can relate to wholeheartedly, but give me 10 years and a rewatch of this and we'll see.

145 minutes felt a little long, but it's still well-made and has rewarding moments for patient viewers. There are always a couple of sections (sometimes more) in an Ozu film that take me off guard emotionally, often by a character expressing some kind of surprisingly profound personal insight. It's those key scenes or even just seconds of film that always stick in mind, and make Ozu a continually engaging filmmaker to watch, even if his films sometimes feel a little slow and overlong (not always 100% in a bad way!)