Ozu's "Early Summer"

   The movie we watched for today was Ozu Yasujiro’s “Early Summer”. The story is about a girl named Noriko and her family. Noriko is a 28 year old secretary who works in Tokyo, and lives in Kamakura with her extended family. It takes place a few years after the war. The movie starts out with an uncle of the family visiting Kamakura, and Noriko’s boss suggests she gets married soon, with her age. He suggests one of his friends, Manabe, a 42 year old businessman, and gives her pictures. Noriko is more or less excited about the proposal, and avoids a lot of the talk surrounding it, making her family take matters in their own hands. They gently push her towards him, but she neither accepts or declines the offer. The movie progresses on, and it isn’t until the mother of the childhood friend, Yabe, impulsively asks her to marry into the family, the day before Yabe and his family is scheduled to move to Akita for a new job. Noriko, without thinking or consulting her family beforehand, says yes, and the plan for their wedding goes through. The family disapproves at first, but slowly starts to accept it for what it is, especially with Noriko and her new fiancé expecting to come back to Kamakura in a few years. Noriko’s mother and father then decides to live in the rural country with the uncle that came to visit earlier in the movie. With the way Noriko’s family struggles with communication, and the never-ending clashes of pre-war and post-war societal changes, especially the growing role of women and women taking charge of their own lives, there is definitely a lot of drama that has to be sorted out.

   I can see why this movie can be regarded as a melodrama, but in only a few points. None of the story was really exaggerated; the movie was very slow paced and quiet. If anything, I think the scene that was the most tense was the scene where the sons of Noriko’s brother called their father a liar for not getting them the train tracks they wanted, and their dad started punishing them. Afterwards, when they ran away and couldn’t be found, was also very tense, but the central plot of Noriko being pressured into marriage wasn’t as intense as, say, “The Golden Demon”. Though the music was there, the music was equally as quiet as the drama of the movie, and barely left a mark in my memory. But it does follow themes of many melodramas that we watched so far, such as following what your family wishes of you and marriage. But even with this, the family was very calm and not much was at stake. There weren’t any problems around money, about life or death situations, or anything dire. At the end though, there’s a sense of relief that washes over the family, and that also counts as part of a melodrama.

   While looking online, I found out that this movie is the second part of a trilogy called the “Noriko trilogy”, the other two movies being “Late Spring” and “Tokyo Story”. I have never watched “Tokyo Story, but I’ve heard that it is a classic melodrama, and it makes me wonder what the differences are in the movies, and which movie is the most melodramatic. I heard that all three films use the same quiet atmosphere and simple plot, but I’m sure there are big differences as well.