The Cinematheque

“Uncharacteristically buoyant … [The father] is as charming a character as Ozu has ever given us … The performers are flawless.”

Vincent Canby, The New York Times

A gorgeously rendered work of great formal precision, Equinox Flower is Ozu’s first film in colour, a demand made by Shochiku to accentuate the beauty of star Yamamoto Fujiko, on loan from rival studio Daiei. When a modern young woman (Arima Ineko) wishes to marry the man of her choice, her mother (Tanaka Kinuyo) understands, but her obstinate father (Saburi Shin) objects, primarily because she did not seek his permission before becoming engaged. Yamamoto plays the daughter’s wily friend, intent on outmaneuvering the patriarch. Ozu’s treatment of the generational conflict is characteristically even-handed, though he later confessed to being more sympathetic to the parents in this instance. Like the handful of other colour movies he made near the end of his career, the film displays Ozu’s particular fondness for the expressive qualities of reds. Hasumi Shiguéhiko finds the film exemplary of Ozu’s sartorial storytelling, where the act of changing clothes signals dynamic shifts in narrative.

In Japanese with English subtitles

“Gentle, spare, and ultimately elusive, in a quietly satisfying way.”

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader