Early Spring

『早春』
Soshun

Presented with the support of the John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund for Classic Film.

35mm Presentation. Opening with a flurry of white shirts as bustling office workers chatter and congregate at train and bus routes for their morning commute, Ozu’s follow-up to Tokyo Story explores a young salaryman’s disillusionment with adulthood in postwar Tokyo. Bored with his passionless marriage and working a monotonous office job, salaryman Shoji (Ryo Ikebe) becomes involved with excitable co-worker “Goldfish” (Keiko Kishi), nicknamed for her big eyes, setting in motion a brief yet consequential affair. Targeting a younger audience, Ozu’s youth drama examines the many entanglements of personal and work lives as the receding aspirations of adulthood fade into life’s many concessions and regrets. Through the snare of overlapping social circles, whether war comrades, office co-workers or family, Ozu’s longest film probes postwar attitudes on marriage, success and infidelity. Through this examination of a white-collar existence, Ozu would claim he desired to show “the pathos of such a life.”

Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, 1956, 145 min., 35mm, b&w, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Ryo Ikebe, Keiko Kishi, Chikage Awashima.

Part of John and Miyoko Davey Classics
Year-round screenings of beloved classics, restorations, and rediscoveries of classic Japanese cinema, offering a new cinematic canon from across the scope of Japanese cinema. Presented with the John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund for Classic Japanese Film.

© 1956 Shochiku.

Japan Society’s 120th anniversary initiatives and related programs are generously supported by Champion Sponsor, MUFG Bank, Ltd.

Japan Society programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Film programs are generously supported by ORIX Corporation USA, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Anime NYC and Yen Press. Endowment support is provided by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund and The John and Miyoko Davey Endowment Fund. Additional season support is provided by The Globus Family, George P. Hirose, David Toberisky, Joseph Rajaratnam and Dharshini Iolanthe Sivakumaran, and Film Circle members.

Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the official Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film Program. Housing assistance is provided by the Prince Kitano New York, the official hotel sponsor of Japan Society Film Program.