Learning a Few Things about Late Spring

Professor Yasar introduced us to “Banshun”(Late Spring), a Japanese movie released in 1949. I learned a couple things. First of all, the impact of American occupation of Japan is obvious. This can be seen from the Coca Cola billboard advertisement in “Late Spring” on the road Noriko and Jun ride bicycles. American soft culture is also embedded in Masa, Noriko Somiya’ Aunt’s words about finding a good-looking future husband who looks like Gary Copper, a famous handsome American actor at that time. Secondly, winning of Filial Piety is straightforward, which is evidenced by Noriko Somiya’s eventual marriage. Even though she does not want to get married at the beginning and middle of the movie due to her wanting to accompany her widowed dad, Noriko marries at the end anyway for her father, her aunt and by the social norm then. This is an act of filial piety that wins at the end. Thirdly the symbols of Japanese tradition are seen everywhere. Late Spring is suffused with the symbols of Japanese tradition in the tea ceremony that opens the film, the temples at Kamakura, the Noh performance that Noriko and Shukichi (Noriko’s father) witness, and the landscape and Zen gardens of Kyoto.