The End of Summer (1961)

Essential Viewing

Japan

Feature Film

Original Title: 小早川家の秋

Director: Ozu Yasujirō

Writers: Noda Kōgo, Ozu Yasujirō

Cinematographer: Nakai Asakazu

Composer: Mayuzumi Toshirō

Cast: Nakamura Ganjiro, Hara Setsuko, Tsukasa Yōko, Aratama Michiyo, Kobayashi Keiju, Shimazu Masahiko, Morishige Hisaya, Naniwa Chieko, Dan Reiko, Sugimura Haruko

As alluringly warm as its late summer setting, Ozu’s exquisitely constructed and very affecting familial drama – the great director’s penultimate film – depicts the romantic concerns of a middle-class Kyoto family, with the sexual exploits of its patriarch and the marital status of two of its daughters being the main causes for concern. Iain.Stott