Ozu title changes

[Lucy Lower]

Not only are there the Boy's Day fish kites, there is an uguisu calling in
early shots (seasonal reference to April and May, and this is in Kita
Kamakura, famous for its nightengales).  "Barley Autumn" (mugi aki)
indicates not autumn but barley-harvesting season, which is early summer.
In the closing shots of the old uncle's village we see fields of barley
(heads pointing up, not drooping as rice would be).  The season, as in so
many of Ozu's late films, is a metaphor for a stage of human life; Noriko
is 26, at the end of her youth/spring, and moving into the fullness of her
womanhood/summer, signified by her marriage (with the substitute marriage
procession wending its way through the fields of barley).  Barley is also
linked to her attachment to her dead brother Shoji, of course, and through
him to Yabe, and maybe in its homely qualities to her new life in the
remote north.

Lucy



>Thats interesting what you say Michael - I had wondered about it myself when
>we were sorting out the translation as to why the title in English would be
>early summer when translated more literally it was Coming Autumn (which is
>mroe likely to be Barley time).    But there is a scene in the film when
>there is a shot of fish kites flying which Kathe Geist says alludes to the
>title as they are usually flown on Boys Day (a reference to the old couple's
>dead son) which is held in Early Summer on which she rests her argument that
>Ozu's transitional shots are not empty but contain particular references -
>so I guess that shoots that theory down doesn't it if the title has actually
>been mistranslated!
>
>Janet
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Michael E. Kerpan <kerpan at attglobal.net>
>To: <KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
>Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 3:23 AM
>Subject: Re: Ozu title changes
>
>
>> On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, "Randy Man" <ranman at csf.edu> wrote:
>>
>> > I would say that this is not a "goof" in translation but rather
>obviously an
>> > attempt on the part of the US distributor to give the film a title that
>> > would appeal to whomever they saw as its most likely audience.
>>
>> But the choice is clueless -- because they picked the wrong season.
>Surely
>> they could have asked someone knowledgeable from Japan what the titles
>were
>> trying to evoke.
>>
>> >Nobody in
>> > their right mind was ever going to try to distribute a film in the US
>under
>> > the title "Taste of Mackerel"(!) I mean REALLY!!
>>
>> Well, there was "A Taste of Honey".
>>
>> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>                           ALSO
>> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>
>> "J Rand" <axis at freeuk.com> wrote:
>>
>> >For example, Early Summer he had called Coming Autumn.
>>
>> Bordwell says that "Early Summer" is really something like "Barley Harvest
>> Time".  I am not an expert on Japanese agriculture, but I would be very
>> surprised if barley was harvested there in early summer.  Beginning of
>autumn
>> seems much more probable.
>>
>> Since Ozu's seasonal imagery is important, it really seems unfortunate
>that it
>> was ignored in the (English-speaking) West.
>>
>>
>>
>> Michael Kerpan
>> Boston, MA
>> kerpan at attglobal.net
>>
>>