Noriko Smiling Adam MarsJones 9781907903458 Books
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'Late Spring, directed and co-written by Yasujiro Ozu, was released in 1949, which makes it an old film, or a film that has been new for a long time...' So begins this remarkable essay in narrative reconstruction, which elicits a world of meanings from the reticences of one classic Japanese movie, and reserves to the very end a resolution of its mystery. Adam Mars-Jones gives a virtuoso comeback performance as that lost figure from the earl days of cinema the film explainer. There has never been a film book like this one.
Noriko Smiling Adam MarsJones 9781907903458 Books
Late Spring (Banshun) has always been my favorite Ozu film, probably because it was my first experience of his films. Yes, Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) is the one critics agree is among the "finest films ever made", but, like Mars-Jones, I find myself drawn to the earlier movie again and again. His fascination with it led to this book, and I'm happy for that. This is unlike any book of film criticism I've encountered. It's written as though you're having a wonderful conversation (albeit extremely one-sided) with a good friend about a film you both love, and he's telling you all of his "secret theories" about its inner workings. The conversational tone borders on the breezy, with occasional asides that are often wryly humorous, but don't distract from the book's intent. I agree with much of what Mars-Jones puts forth, (particularly regarding interpretations from other, well-known critics), and admit to being a little surprised at the key point of Noriko's back-story that I hadn't thought of before, revealed, almost with a flourish, at the book's end. My only criticism: Mars-Jones apparently doesn't believe in the concept of "Chapters", so the book is presented as one, continuous monologue. Other than that, if you haven't seen the movie, (or haven't seen it in a long time), don't read the book first. If you're familiar with the film you'll find this a thoroughly entertaining and engaging read.Product details
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Noriko Smiling Adam MarsJones 9781907903458 Books Reviews
British author Adam Mars Jones writes a whole book (239 pages undivided by chapters) to analyze just one movie, a film that is relatively well known to movie buffs though it has never reached a mass audience, at least in the West Late Spring from 1949, directed by Japan's Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963). Ozu started making movies in the late 1920s, during the silent cinema era, and is best known by Tokyo Story from 1953, a masterpiece chosen in 2012 in a worldwide poll by British film magazine Sight and Sound as the best film ever made. Late Spring, the story of an aging professor (played by Chishu Ryu) pressuring her 27 year old daughter Noriko (legendary actress Setsuko Hara, who wears a smile during most of this film, thus the title) to marry despite her desire to stay with him, is significant not just for being a very fine movie but because it is the first film of Ozu's latter, final period, in which he consistently uses a very personal style (low camera position, use of pillow shots, repeated use of ellipses where key events are not shown, almost no movement of the camera, use of close ups, a focus on female characters).
Mars Jones has no problem in admitting at the start that he is not an expert on Japanese films or in Japanese culture for that matter, having seen Late Spring only recently. I too first saw Late Spring, relatively recently, in 2006, on the occasion of an Ozu retrospective in my home town. I liked the film immediately and consider it to be among the strongest of Ozu. I didn't thought a lot about the movie in the years afterwards, but I recently watched it again on youtube. Just as Mars Jones, who in order to write this book, repeteadly watched the movie, scene by scene, in a DVD, I liked it so much that I re watched it several times. It is amazing how repeated views of this film allows you to find many things that were unnoticed in first viewings. My fascination with Late Spring (which I can rate now as one of my favorite movies of all time, at least for the time being) directed me to investigate what was written about this movie in the web, and eventually to purchase this little volume when I learned someone has written a book dedicated exclusively to it.
Mars Jones analyzes the film scene by scene, and almost frame by frame. He dismisses Western critics such as Donald Richie which see Ozu as quintessentially Zen. He downplays any explanation that focuses on Ozu's Japaneness (despite his reputation as being the most Japanese of Japan's film directors, Ozu's films are quite accessible and easy to understand by Western audiences. The characters in his movies are vivid and easy to relate by non Japanese audiences).
He writes well and with wit, and most of his analysis makes sense to me. For example, in one scene Noriko and a friend goes in a bike to the beach and pass over a sign of Coca Cola. Most critics had interpreted this scene as a critique of how Japan fell to Western commercialism after the war. But Mars-Jones has a simpler explanation at the time this movie was filmed, there were hundreds of thousands of American soldiers stationed on the country, so it was natural to have ads of American products posted for them. Just as I did when I watched the movie, he wonders about the enigmatic presence of a maid at the professor's household. Mars Jones analysis fails only at the end, I think, when he suggests that Noriko's reluctance to marry is because she was probably raped during the war (something that is never mentioned in the movie).
I was inspired to read Adam Mars-Jones' book on Yasujiro Ozu's 1949 film Late Spring, Noriko Smiling (2010) after reading about it in Film Comment. I own the film so I watched it again before starting the book and I may have to go back and watch it again to confirm some of Mars' observations of the film that I couldn't corroborate. Most of the book is related to his observations and theories of the film, but clearly he has also read everything he could find in English about it and has a wealth of interesting things to say about this film, Ozu, Japan in 1949, censorship during the occupation, and even Akira Kurosawa. It turns out Kurosawa released his film noir master work (that I have written about in journal articles twice) Stray Dog in 1949 as well. Kurosawa also faced troubles with the censors and acted much the same as Ozu-following some suggestions and ignoring others. At any rate, Mars is not afraid of challenging celebrated critics "When (Donald) Richie turns Ozu into a religious artist, to be approached only by the initiated, I think he's plain wrong. Sometimes works of art need to be defended against thier advocates, and great films rescued from their reputations. Masterpieces are not fragile but robust. They can stand up to more than a reverent dusting." He also has problems with Paul Schrader's focus on the Transcendent and says " Sometimes Schrader seems like a true believer who will use thumbscrews on you if you don't accept the principle of non-attachment." He discusses a book by Lars-Martin Sorenson called Censorship of Japanese Films During the Occupation of Japan (2009) and reveals some interesting tidbits about this topic. First of all, the offices for the two groups involved in censorship were housed in the Hattori Building in Ginza that is used as the Tokyo establishing shot twice in the film-a sort of inside joke. He also identifies some changes that needed to be made and others that were ignored. Another interesting observation Mars made about the film suggests that two shots of English signage that I missed or didn't pay attention to were inadvertently showing that there were occupational forces there a Coke-a-Cola sign and signage on weight limits on a bridge. His big theory, which has some merit, is that Noriko experience some sort of sexual trauma when she was doing forced labor during the war. And that would explain her aversion to marriage and her attitude about her father's friend Mr. Oonodera being dirty for having remarried after his wife died. I find Noriko's behavior difficult to understand and this makes as much sense as any other explanation to me.
Late Spring (Banshun) has always been my favorite Ozu film, probably because it was my first experience of his films. Yes, Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) is the one critics agree is among the "finest films ever made", but, like Mars-Jones, I find myself drawn to the earlier movie again and again. His fascination with it led to this book, and I'm happy for that. This is unlike any book of film criticism I've encountered. It's written as though you're having a wonderful conversation (albeit extremely one-sided) with a good friend about a film you both love, and he's telling you all of his "secret theories" about its inner workings. The conversational tone borders on the breezy, with occasional asides that are often wryly humorous, but don't distract from the book's intent. I agree with much of what Mars-Jones puts forth, (particularly regarding interpretations from other, well-known critics), and admit to being a little surprised at the key point of Noriko's back-story that I hadn't thought of before, revealed, almost with a flourish, at the book's end. My only criticism Mars-Jones apparently doesn't believe in the concept of "Chapters", so the book is presented as one, continuous monologue. Other than that, if you haven't seen the movie, (or haven't seen it in a long time), don't read the book first. If you're familiar with the film you'll find this a thoroughly entertaining and engaging read.
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