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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