93
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyEach shot in Late Spring is striking on its own; the mature Ozu belongs to that rare category of filmmakers whose work can be recognized from a single frame. But together—with all their abrupt shifts in visual perspective and time—they become a mosaic, deeply poignant and ultimately mysterious in the way it envisions a relationship between two people trapped by how much they care for one another.
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertLate Spring is one of the best two or three films Ozu ever made.
- 100Village VoiceVillage VoiceYou either get it or you don't. I get it. At least until I see some Ozus I've missed, Late Spring seems to me his greatest achievement, and, thus, one of the 10 best films of all time. [17 Aug 1972, p.57]
- 100It could, from premise alone, sound like an Austen-ish comedy of manners, and perhaps the film that Ozu might have made early in his career. Here, though, it’s an immaculate, gentle drama in which society gets in the way of the happiness of a father and daughter, and growing up and moving away isn’t so much a victory as a bitter cost of time and change.
- 90Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrYasujiro Ozu’s 1949 film inaugurated his majestic late period: it’s here that he decisively renounces melodrama (and, indeed, most surface action of any kind) and lets his camera settle into the still, long-take contemplation of his gently drawn characters.
- 90The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyRigid formality leaves much unsaid in Yasujiro Ozu’s 1949 film, but the director reveals the hidden depths of ordinary life with a quiet astonishment and observes his characters with an exacting subtlety of expression.
- 88LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenLarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenWe observe family dynamics that could take place in any home, at any time; as Noriko and Shukichi tentatively negotiate the future of their family, they’re enacting a story that’s both distinct to post-war Japan and straight from the pages of Jane Austen.
- 88Slant MagazineJaime N. ChristleySlant MagazineJaime N. ChristleyFew films have expressed, with as much force and lyricism as Ozu’s Late Spring, the various emotions (melancholy, bittersweet joy, impassioned regret, taciturn resignation) associated with the ongoing, perpetual dissolution of “the world as we know it.”
- 80The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyOzu's recognition of the wall of skin separating the mind of the character from the viewer is an integral part of his philosophy. It amounts to a profound respect for their privacy, for the mystery of their emotions. Because of this—not in spite of this—his films, of which Late Spring is one of the finest, are so moving.
- 60EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanNot as affecting as Ozu's classic Tokyo Story, Late Spring still charms with it's similar theme of development of the parental bond as the children mature and become more independent. Although well acted, the visual are equally arresting but when the themes are so similar a new approach is required to keep it interesting.