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starring: Setsuko Hara, Chishu Ryu, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake, Ichirô Sugaidirected by: Yasujiro Ozu
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304313442
Format: Black & White, NTSC
ISBN: 6304313446
Label: Homevision
Manufacturer: Homevision
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Homevision
Release Date: June 13, 2000
Running Time: 124 minutes
Sales Rank: 13284
Studio: Homevision
Theatrical Release Date: August 02, 1972
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Editorial Review:
Description:
A masterpiece fit to stand beside Tokyo Story, Early Summer is quintessential Ozu. Unique among all filmmakers, he developed his own beautifully restrained style by positioning his camera three feet above the floor and rejecting such techni
Amazon.com:
Like any of Yasujiro Ozu's best-known films, Early Summer is a marvel of cinematic simplicity, revealing layers of depth through multiple viewings. It may seem at first that Ozu's family tale is too simple, but looks are deceiving, and closer study reveals an intensely structured, highly formalized example of Ozu's transcendental realism, focusing on the dilemma of 28-year-old Noriko (played by the immensely popular Setsuko Hara), whose late-breaking decision to marry sends unexpected shock waves through three generations of her close-knit family. While providing a vivid portrait of liberated womanhood in post-war Japan, this lighthearted yet quietly devastating drama also serves as a gentle study of tradition vs. modernity, and a clash between conformity and independence. It's also a triumph of DVD-as-film-school: As he did for Criterion's release of A Story of Floating Weeds, the distinguished scholar Donald Richie provides an eloquent full-length commentary as valuable as the film itself, thoroughly exploring the purpose of Ozu's low-angle style, the influence of Ernst Lubitsch, the importance of Setsuko as a role model for Japanese girls, stylistic comparison to Jane Austen's fiction, and a variety of other relevant topics. 'Ozu's Films from Behind the Scenes' gathers three of Ozu's longtime collaborators for affectionate reminiscence, and mini-essays by Ozu expert David Bordwell and long-time Ozu admirer Jim Jarmusch lend further appreciation from critical and personal perspectives. This is Criterion's fifth Ozu release on DVD, and like the others, it's highly recommended. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Ozu in top form
Early Summer (Bakushû) is the middle entry in what has been called director Yasujiro Ozu's Noriko Trilogy (bookended by Late Spring and Tokyo Story). All three films feature women named Noriko (all played by Setsuko Hara), who are without husbands, and embroiled in family dramas. The names of many of the other major characters recur in the trilogy, as well, which gives the films a feeling of almost being alternate world versions of each other- ala the way comic books have `canonical' superhero ... Read More
Rating: - Ozu's most beautiful film
In my opinion, Early Summer is Ozu's most beautiful film. The heroine, Setsuko Hara has never been so radiant in her beauty and goodness. Her unselfishness and personal conviction triumph over intense familial and cultural pressures. In standing up for herself, she awakens within her family a greater understanding and acceptance of the realities of love and life. Her conversation with her sister about her decision on the beach is perhaps my favorite scene in all cinema.
Rarely ... Read More
Rating: - Early Summer
Simple yet poignant, this beautifully photographed story of Japanese family life and the changing role of women in postwar society contrasts the values of elders and the impulses of youth, an abiding theme in Ozu's deeply humanistic oeuvre. Longtime muse Hara is exquisite in the role of Noriko, the put-upon daughter who incautiously agrees to marry a friend of her brother over an unfeeling suitor 12 years her senior. A delicate exploration of tradition and cultural change, "Early Summer" is a masterpiece ... Read More
Rating: - Life cycle of a family
I interpret this film as portraying the Buddhist insight of impermanence.
All things change and clinging to anything brings inevitable grief. This lesson is played out in the evolution of a family from a cohesive three generation family all living in one household to the scattering of the family as the younger generation moves away to establish their own households, leaving the parents alone. There is a minor repetition of this theme with the portrayal of of an elderly uncle in declining health with ... Read More
Rating: - The sanctity of Family
An absolute masterpiece. This is another take on the issue of 'Late Spring'(of which I wrote another review): How family changes along with the times.
It's NOT about the rights of women to decide whom to marry, or anything of that sort. Visually, I prefer 'Late Spring', but 'Early Summer' has a lot more issues and more depth in its narative. It really would take a whole book to tell all that this film points to, if it were at all possible. How can you you describe colors to someone who's ... Read More
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