Thoughts on End of Summer (Yasujiro Ozu)

I viewed End of Summer (1961), Ozu’s second-to-last film, yesterday. As well as being another masterpiece from an artist who was possibly the most consistently excellent film-maker of all time, this story of the disintegration of a family is also remarkably different from any other Ozu film I have seen. Despite being shot in sumptuous Technicolor, it is undoubtedly one of the bleakest films in the great director’s oeuvre.

Skimming through a plot synopsis, one would think we are in familiar Ozu territory. Two daughters are being pressed by their once-prosperous family to marry. As is often the case, they, the eldest and youngest of the family’s three daughters, have other plans. To complicate the situation at home, their dad is sneaking out to visit an old lover, with whom he has had an illegitimate daughter. A man of failing health, it is after a day out with his former flame that he collapses and dies.

Many of Ozu's films do end with a sense of irretrievable loss - but there is often also that bittersweet moment when the characters resign themselves to the fact that life has to go on. Yet as Ozu scholar and Japanese film buff Donald Richie says, there are almost no "survivors" when End of Summer finishes. The final scenes of the crematorium smokestacks, the black-clad figures moving along a pier and that very last shot of crows cawing on an empty beach can have a different effect - one not of wistfulness, but of devastation. The dramatic soundtrack (rare for an Ozu film) adds to this almost overbearing sensation.

Yet a difference in tone does not mean a difference in quality. End of Summer is an outstanding film, and well worth seeing. The tension, while maybe not as subtle as in the earlier masterworks, never approaches Hollywood-style melodrama, and Ozu’s gentle humour is also evident in places, particularly the scene in which the mischievous patriarch sees, and takes, an opportunity to escape to his girlfriend during a game of hide-and-seek with his grandson. The clash of East and West in 1960s Japan, being felt more accutely now than before, is documented poignantly. And, of course, the performances are excellent, with the saintly Setsuko Hara playing a considerably older character than her “Norikos”, and Chishu Ryu in a welcome cameo as an old fisherman.

The Artificial Eye DVD edition of the film, like the Criterion Good Morning, is simply inadequate. In terms of extras, an Ozu filmography is all we get, and the transfer leaves something to be desired. The image isn’t as sharp as it could have been, and the colour-scheme is rather eccentric, with skin tones ranging from ruddy to a chalky pink, which is probably not what Ozu intended (look at DVDBeaver's review for an idea on how this film should look). Another problem for Criterion to rectify. I wish they’d pull finger.