For Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu, domestic tranquility—no matter how humble—always sits on a razor’s edge, only an illness, romantic prospect, or job change away from being thrown into disarray. Such is the case, in Early Summer, for the Mamiya family when they suddenly decide that it is high time for 27-year-old daughter Noriko (Setsuko Hara) to marry. What was a bustling multigenerational home of familiar roles and routines—involving Norkio’s older parents (Ichiro Sugai and Chieko Higashiyama), adult brother and his wife (Chishu Ryu and Kuniko Miyake), and their troublesome young sons—becomes upended. (Never one for ostentatious filmmaking, Ozu visually balances the upheaval with subtle instances of characters moving in graceful unison.) Along with Late Spring and Tokyo Story, Early Summer comprises the “Noriko trilogy,” in which Hara plays similarly named single women who gently push back against societal expectations. This Noriko does so with striking good humor, laughing away her family’s machinations, all while fumbling her own way toward a hopeful balance between tradition and independence.
(4/18/2025)
