Film Clips Reflection

[Nira Sun]

I would like to say that I totally enjoyed the film Late Spring even though we were only shown with a few clips. I now will go to YouTube to watch the entire film.

From a few scenes I watched so far, I somehow feel the portrait of the coexistence of traditional and modern perspectives. These two seem to be conflicting to be presented together yet its wonderfully crafted in this film.

The type of marriage that Noriko entered was typical arranged marriage in which major traits to be considered as a decent husband was his degree, job, and reputation. The demonstration of the conflict was when Noriko’s friend, Ayako, who persuaded her to enter this arranged marriage with a modern perspective of having the freedom to leave it whenever she wanted. Aya was portraited as a young lady who carried westernized interpretation of marriage and lifestyle yet she took part in persuading Noriko to accept a traditional arranged marriage. I’m curious to know how she dealt with such conflict inside of her.

If we compare the wardrobe of Noriko, Ayako and her aunt Masa, we’d find out that Noriko and Ayako dressed in western dress and Masa has always been in traditional Japanese Kimono. Appearance wise, Noriko is a young modern Japanese lady with a traditional perspective that I felt was quite similar to the filial piety we discussed yesterday. I can’t be sure of her intention of staying single and living with her father since I haven’t watched the entire movie yet. However, I’d like to assume that she was intended to sacrifice her happiness so that her father didn’t have to spend the rest of his life alone. Maybe it is not uncommon to be a conflicted hybrid individual. I’d say that director Ozu made an advanced step to let us see the inside of ourselves 70 years ago.