Late Spring

Late Spring (晩春, 1949) is Yasujiro Ozu's quiet family drama, and you can watch online on iFILM. Twenty-seven-year-old Noriko is content keeping house with her widowed father and has no wish to marry, until her relatives decide that simply won't do.

Professor Somiya, played by Chishu Ryu, and his daughter share a gentle daily routine in postwar Kamakura. An aunt insists the young woman is overdue for a husband, and the old man resorts to a small deception to let go of the person he loves most. Setsuko Hara plays Noriko with restraint, smiling through an ache she never names; a moment at a Noh performance and a final shot of an apple being peeled have become textbook cinema. Ozu shoots low from his trademark tatami-level camera, barely moving it, leaving room for silence.

This is the first of three Ozu films built around a heroine named Noriko and a peak of his work on family and parting. Slow, hushed filmmaking for anyone willing to watch people closely. Stream Late Spring (1949) online on iFILM.