This beautifully mounted film from Yasujiro Ozu is an astounding achievement in simplicity. Using the camera lens like an artist uses a brush, he paints in small strokes whose beauty is only revealed in full when completed. Late Sping is a restful yet poignantly moving portrait of family love and sacrifice. Ozu attains an intimacy on film not reached again until Vietnam's Tran came close, in The Scent of Green Papaya and The Vertical Ray of the Sun, many decades later. The placid beauty and tenderness of Late Spring, however, is unmatched.

Cinematographer Yuharu Atsuta beautifully captures Ozu’s minimalist and intimate approach to storytelling. Ozu himself had begun his career in silent films as a cameraman, allowing him to speak with elegance through said lens. Here he allows Atsuta’s camera to linger on an evocative scene, or a face, creating a narrative of depth and poignancy which required a minimum of dialog. Major events are often alluded to, but rarely shown on-screen, as the director shows the fluidity of life in broader terms, by focusing on family and love. Studying American films in Singapore, Ozu had his own vision as a filmmaker, and his works are among the most Japanese in style and substance. Like Orson Welles, he had sort of a stock company of players who appeared in most of his films. Lovely Setsuko Hara is enchanting as Noriko, giving a beautifully realized and realistic performance as an old-fashioned girl who cares so deeply for her widowed father, she has not married, and moved forward with her own life.

Setsuko became a symbol of the golden era in Japanese cinema thanks to Ozu, though she is perhaps even more revered in America. Her talents were vast, but intertwined so closely with the director, she quit films the same year he passed on, living quietly and without publicity. A placidity is immediately captured in Late Spring, the viewer feeling privy to scenes of intimate family life which entrances them, like the warm sake Noriko's father, Shukichi Somiya (Chishu Ryu), drinks in the evening. Noriko is shown to be a lovely and happy girl, full of warmth and humor. Bit by bit, by keeping his camera focused on her, however, the tender portrait of wonderful girl who loves her aging, and often difficult to manage, father is slowly revealed. So deep is her love and affection for him, that she has sacrificed her own prospects at joining the flowing waters of life reaching Japan's shores. Her father's sister, Masa (Haruko Sugimura), broaches this subject, causing him to consider remarriage, something his 27 year old daughter finds repugnant.

Arranging for Noriko to meet an eligible man proves painful, as she must be dragged towards living her own life by her loving father and pushy aunt. Ozu shows Noriko to be independent and remarkable, while at the same time not dismissive of Japanese tradition. The viewer is left wondering if spring has passed for Noriko, and senses her hurt at her father's intention to remarry, and marry her off, even to a man who “looks like Gary Cooper.” This is not the only reference to America, as many baseball terms are used in this Ozu masterpiece, showing the fascination with the sport still rampant in Japanese society.

Noriko is surprised that she likes her suitor, and is encouraged to get married by her good friend, Aya (Yumeji Tsukioka). A quiet conversation between father and daughter, filled with wisdom, is wonderfully captured by Ozu’s camera. Their last trip together to Kyoto will reveal a great sacrifice, however, revealed to Aya over sake. The final shot of Ozu's masterwork is tender, and deeply moving, the canvas he has painted on now fully exposed to the light, and visible for all to see.

A beautiful film of great intimacy, showing both love and sacrifice between a daughter and her father, this is a film which lingers in the heart long after it is over. A lovely film from a fine director, and an excellent example of the less is more school of filmmaking. ( )