Ozu in Berkeley
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This weekend, the Pacific Film Archive, in Berkeley, California, will screen Yasujiro Ozu’s 1958 film Equinox Flower as part of a two-month series highlighting his late-career work. With the Japanese master’s trademark empathy and wistfulness, this family drama follows the conflict between a conservative father and his rebellious daughter, who refuses to accept his plans for her arranged marriage and decides to wed a man of her own choosing. Boasting vibrant cinematography by Ozu’s longtime collaborator Yuharu Atsuta, the director’s first foray into color filmmaking coincided with his newfound embrace of the younger generation and his increasingly modern attitudes toward Japanese social conventions. In his notes on Equinox Flower, included in Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu, Michael Koresky examines how the director’s exacting use of color opened up new expressive possibilities for him as a visual stylist, noting that the film’s “bemused look at the collision between the old and the new feels truly liberated, both narratively and aesthetically.”
Those in Berkeley can see Equinox Flower this Saturday night in 35 mm. In the meantime, get a glimpse of the film from our Eclipse shelf.
