Higanbana

Ozu's first color film, named after the deep red Japanese spider lily, is both elegy and comedy. This alleged contradiction goes to the core of the film itself: “Life is full of contradictions. The sum of all the contradictions of life is life itself,” says Wataru Hirayama (Shin Saburi), who, as a stubborn head of the family, forbids the love marriage of his eldest daughter Setsuko (quietly insisting: Ineko Arima), while showing himself tolerant to the outside world. It is only a trick that causes the women involved the greatest joy that makes him reconsider his position. Both Ineko Arima and Yoshiko Kuga play young women who position themselves against traditional Japanese ideas, but at the same time do not give up contact with their respective fathers who embody these values. A razor-fine contradiction à la Ozu, in which past and future belong together, as always, precisely framed in thoroughly composed pictures, now in color. (mg)