would talk
about all kinds of things,
showing sides of himself
I hadn't known before.
I remember plotting one evening
to pay him back for his frequent
mischief and naughtiness and teasing
by having Setsuko Hara,
the actress he was so fond of,
sit next to him at the table
as though they were lovers.
He turned bright red.
He was so flustered.
I suppose I was the only one
who teased him back like that.
It's a wonderful memory now.
THE END OF SUMMER
Are you ready?
Are you ready?
Are you ready?
Come and find me.
Are you ready?
Come and find me.
Are you ready?
Come and find me.
It's so sad.
If you'd known this was going to happen,
you'd never have gone.
Look, dear.
Someone must have died.
See the smoke?
You're right.
It's not so bad
if it's some old grandma or grandpa,
but if it's a young person,
you really feel sad.
Yes.
But even as some are dying,
others are being born
one after the other.
Right.
I suppose it all works out.
Death represents the final parting
of parent and child.
In The End of Summer,
Ozu brought vividly to the screen
the shadow that death
casts over us as we age.
On February 4, 1962,
Ozu was working with Kogo Noda
on the script of An Autumn Afternoon,
when he received news
ofhis mother's death.
''So the old lady's gone and died,
has she?''he said.
He grabbed a towel and went
to the sink in the garden.
He turned the water on full blast
and splashed it on his face over and over.
But the tears just kept on coming.
He stood weeping
in the cold, mid-winter dusk.
Every time I watch an Ozu film,
EIJIRO TONO - ACTOR
I start to feel very sentimental
as the end of the film nears.
As I think back over the story,
it's like a flood of old memories
washing over me, one after another.
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON
You two are lucky.
I feel so sad.
Sad about what?
So sad and lonely.
In the end, we're all alone in this life.
So utterly alone.
I was wrong.
I screwed up.
I only cared
about my own convenience.
What do you mean?
I'm talking about my daughter.
It was convenient for me
to keep her at home.
There were times
I could have married her off.
But with her mother gone,
it was easier just to keep her on.
And now it's too late for her.
I'd already done several films
when I appeared in An Autumn Afternoon.
SHIMA IWASHITA - ACTRESS
I'd already begun to establish
my own acting style.
My fiancй, played by Teruo Yoshida,
falls in love with another woman,
and I get dumped.
To show my pain, I was supposed
to go to the sewing machine,
wind the measuring tape three times
to the right, twice to the left,
let it all out, and wind it
three times to the right again,
then swallow hard once -
all without any lines to speak,
and all in a complete daze.
But I just couldn't get it right.
He must have made me
repeat it 60 times.
I didn't know
what I was doing wrong.
I think basically I was paying
too much attention to the tape measure,
and Ozu was waiting for me
to forget it.
When I saw the finished scene,
it was a real eye-opener
how clearly those simple actions
expressed the deep sorrow
of a girl who has lost her lover.
In retrospect, I realized
it had been a very valuable lesson.
You're beautiful, Michiko.
You really are.
Shall we go, then?
The set was so quiet
you could have heard a pin drop.
I took my place, thinking,
''I mustn't let the tension get to me.''
Every single action was
strictly prescribed -
from how I carried the glass to my mouth,
to how long I drank, to what I said.
There was a rigid framework
for everything, which seemed confining.
But it was also fun to work
within such tight constraints,
to see how I could express
the person I was within those limits.
I felt like I learned a lot.
How much did you borrow?
Fifty thousand yen.
Borrowing more doesn't mean
you can buy things like that.
You're always spending money
on something or other for yourself.
No, I'm not.
Yes, you are.
There are things I