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An Autumn Afternoon by Yasujiro Ozu

In 1962, the world was a much slower place. People used to have a lot of time to themselves and even some more for friends and family. Forty five years later, in our present day scenario, we hardly seem to have time for a proper meal. The pace at which we live our lives has become frantic as science fiction of yesterday becomes the reality of today. In the 22 years of my personal existence, I must admit that life indeed has become faster than ever.

This is exactly why we need films like ‘An Autumn Afternoon’. The great Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu’s final film gives us a sense of humanism unlike anything else. The film is delightfully slow-paced, much on the lines of a Satyajit Ray or Ingmar Bergman film. When compared to the likes of Kurosawa, the film stands highly contrasted -but then again, comparing Kurosawa to Ozu would be like comparing apples and oranges.

‘An Autumn Afternoon’ is a simple story. It’s something you would tell your grandchildren over the 5 o’clock tea and biscuits. The story is the tale of Shuhei Hirayama (Chishu Ryu) who is enjoying a well-settled life with a nice job at a big factory and is nearing his retirement. His three children are now adults- his eldest son married, his younger son Kazuo is working and his daughter Michiko has assumed the role of the lady of the house after the death of his wife. Hirayama has reached a point in his life where he doesn’t have to worry about making a life anymore. What he did not expect is the eventual departure of his daughter who is old enough to be married now. His first encounter with this thought comes when a female employee at his factory (who is about the same age as Michiko) applies for a long leave for her wedding. It is here that he first begins wondering if Michiko is old enough to be married off. His thought takes a more prominent shape when his friend Kawai comes to him with a match for Michiko. Hirayama is reluctant and manages to delay the proposition.

Later at his high-school reunion he meets his teacher Sakuma the Gourd, who has retired now and has fallen into hard times. He is running a noodle bar in his house to support himself and his daughter. He meets Sakuma’s daughter when he escorts Sakuma back home after a heavy session of drinking. This is where Hirayama sees that Sakuma’s daughter has remained unmarried way past her youth to support her widower father. This is where Hirayama decides that he won’t let the same thing happen to Michiko and finally gathers the courage to let her go.

Set against a backdrop of post-war Japan, the sets for ‘An Autumn Afternoon’ are modelled around a very industrial and non-human look. It is perhaps this mechanical backdrop that brings out the subtlest of the human emotions in the film to the foreground. Never once does the drama of the film come out to the upper layers. The film feels as though it is happening really in front of our eyes. Dealing with the subject of loneliness, the character of Hirayama becomes almost a personification of it. His dilemma and his love for his daughter haunt us just as much as they haunt him. Much like how people used to be back in 1962, most of the film’s characters have a sort of realistic kindness to them that is not seen in cinema too often.

A second level undercurrent to the film is the way children continue to need their parents long after they have left the nest. In the film, Hirayama’s eldest son is married and is living with his wife in a small apartment. They try to budget and compromise to build their own little life, but we see that they need the occasional financial help from Hirayama to keep them going. This is a perfect example of how the Japanese in the 1960s were pursuing their version of the ‘American Dream’. And on the other hand we have the beautiful interactions between all the characters- with a large amount of respect for each other and their willingness to help each other out, it is just what we need to make this world a better place.

Yasujiro Ozu was no doubt a master of the craft. It is sad that he passed away a year after the release of ‘An Autumn Afternoon’, but he has left us a beautiful masterpiece as his final farewell. He showed us how much beauty human beings are capable of and how if we just treat each other the right way, we can have a serene and peaceful world much like the ones we see in his films.