Early Spring

Friday, August 14 - Sunday, August 16, 2015

35mm print

“[A] quiet disgust with daily life is rapidly established as the young clerical worker (Ryo Ikebe) lights a bleak pre-breakfast cigarette before facing the commuters’ train. He’s an austere, intensely reserved person; his wife (Chikage Awashima) is neat, practical, efficient — and almost as stoical as he is. Theirs was a love match, but now they seem quite indifferent to one another—talking across an empty space that widens steadily.

“The husband’s colleagues assert that their office is a jail; hence they seize at small pleasures: a joke, a hike, a noodle supper. Any change is important to them. Almost inevitably, the husband — who’s hardly a swinger—gets briefly entangled with a young woman (Keiko Kishi) who’s brimming over with the gaiety and animation that his life lacks. She’s typecast by others as the office flirt, but Ozu has given her a much wider dimension than that: she’s the only character who feels free to express strong feelings. Cheerfully, she admits that she’s jealous of the wife, while her lover is glum and guilty. Meanwhile, the office staff gossips and intrudes on the affair, thinking it’s their business—which it’s not.” – The New York Times

• Country Japan
• Language In Japanese with English subtitles
• Rating NR
• Year 1956
• Running Time 145 minutes
• Director Yasujiro Ozu

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