“Ozu’s characteristic blend of tones—humor, melancholy, yearning, resignation, serenity—here achieves perhaps its greatest richness. In this world, elders hide cake so kids won’t get any, and an obtuse employer startles us by sensing a staff member’s uneasiness. The pacing gives us time to search every shot for details, to weigh every facial expression, and to reflect on each character’s attitude. Trying for happiness is like trying to win at the racetrack, says Aya. Koichi urges Noriko to take the best suitor she has; she can’t do better. And as for finding the lost son? “There’s no hope now,” says Grandfather, smiling.
Ozu filters urban, suburban, and rural life through his distinct pictorial vision. The shots outside Noriko’s office building turn a street lamp into a barometric needle marking various camera positions. He manages to make a crane shot (the only one in his surviving work) an exercise in seaside geometry. The shots that take us into and out of the Uncle’s home across fields of grain evoke the original Japanese title (The Barley Harvest Season) while also playing a sophisticated game with shot scale.
A film that begins with “There’s No Place Like Home” tinkling on the soundtrack ends with a vision of a family scattered. Ozu’s ensemble plot portrays the relentlessness of passing time and the way it strains and frays human ties. The social networks we have sampled—the family and friends whom we have come to love—turn out to embody a grand cycle of life. And Ozu’s characters come to accept that rhythm of change with a good-humored, slightly troubled tranquility.”