Having only seen two other films from Yasujiro Ozu - Tokyo Story and Late Spring, both of which are thoroughly impressive - it's hard to shake that An Autumn Afternoon is praised solely for being his final film. I thought that premise was familiar - it's borrowed from Late Spring at the very least, and most likely from more of Ozu's films. However, it's difficult to feel that he's necessarily exploring it in a deeper more interesting way. It's a different angle, focusing on the father's perspective, but although I like the actors the plot felt so meandering that it didn't engage me, though nor did it bore me. It feels a little too derivative. Ostensibly Ozu's films suit a black and white environment as the colour pastilles don't have the same richness his traditional cinematography provides. However, if anything, by its end it captures a striking image of loneliness. It accentuates the irony of sending offspring to marry just to result in this, as though it's a cycle of life. Perhaps Ozu's own repetitiveness evokes that cycle even more, though it hardly resonates 50 years later in the West. Still, it's a solid film worth watching. I'll see what else Ozu has in store for me.
7/10
7/10