FILM & REVIEW Aka Equinox Flowers - Ozu’s gentle comedy about generational conflict in particular between Fathers and Daughters. Watera (Suburo) is the father of two teenage daughters. - The eldest Satsuko (Arima) is of mariagable age but unlike her parents arranged marriage wants to make her own choice. One day a young man calls at her Fathers office asking for his consent to the wedding - Watera feels he has been ambushed and refuses leading to very wry mind games between him and the rest of the family. Satsuko’s friend Yukiko (Yamamoto) engages in a subterfuge and sets the old man up by getting him to agree to one thing when in fact he is agreeing to something else ie his consent. He takes this with ill grace but is slowly ground down by all the females. It takes a droll look at changes in Japanese society especially the balance of power between the sexes. There is a very funny scene where old school friends meet and agree that if they have sons then the husband has the upper hand but if it’s a daughter it’s the wife. - and look round at each other and realise they all have daughters…. As always with Uzo he gets great performances out of his cast and uses that static camera to great effect - but of a gem - 4/5
This is a very quiet movie about a few Japanese men and their relationships with their daughters. The main story is about a family where the father is definitely the boss. He is in a typical arranged marriage. There are excruciating scenes, by western standards, watching him come home from the office when he changes out of his business suit and just hands his clothes to his subservient wife or merely drops each item on the floor while she picks them up and puts them neatly away for him. Their older daughter does not want an arranged marriage. When she reveals that she wants to marry a man she is in love with, the father is furious and makes her stay away from work and remain in the house for days. Another father reveals that his daughter has left home to be with the man she chose to marry. The fathers see that their control is being taken away from them. If they do not accept the men their daughters have chosen, they will not see their daughters anymore. The story shows a change in society where young women were gently demanding their rights. I love most Japanese movies so I recommend this.