Ozu title changes

Michael E. Kerpan kerpan
Thu Aug 31 19:50:38 EDT 2000


On Thu, 31 Aug 2000,  Lucy Lower <lower at hawaii.edu> wrote:

> 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).

There is no doubt that at least part of the film takes place in early May.  The
markers are clearly there.

>  "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).

We concluded also that the fields seen at the end were most likely barley.

>  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.

There are two questions here.  (One) completely pragmatic --barley is harvested
in the US at a point later than early summer. Is the Japanese barley season
significantly different?

(Two) Who are the focal characters?  If Noriko, summer provides a better image.
 If her parents, then perhaps autumn is more suitable. 

I guess one can't really answer #2 until one knows for (relatively) sure more
about Japanese agriculture. <g>

In any event, whatever it's "name" -- this is surely one of the most wonderful
movies I have ever seen.

Michael Kerpan
(who couldn't find the answer to #1 in Bordwell)




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