Filmmaker Presents "Late Spring"

By Broadside Staff Reporter Ethan Vaughan and Staff Writer Lema Baha

The Japanese film Late Spring was shown in the Johnson Center Cinema last Thursday and attracted roughly 25 students.

Many of the students are either interested in film, Japanese language or both. The movie was one of many events hosted by Asian Pacific American Coalition in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

The movie, directed by renowned Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, follows the story of 27-year-old Noriko, a happily single Japanese woman whose widower father attempts to trick her into marriage.

Ozu’s movies are known for the unique technical style he used, and for the narrative contents.

Late Spring, like many of his movies, is a simple and realistic story concerning the relationship between Noriko and her father.

They lived a quiet content life together, until Noriko’s father and aunt begin pressuring her into marriage. The story is simple, but the techniques used to develop it make a strong impact.

According to the audience for the event, the film viewing and open forum discussion afterwards went well with an introduction and closing remarks made by Japanese film critic Michael Jeck.

Discussions before and after the viewing were led by Jeck, who in the fall of 2008 will join the George Mason University faculty as a professor of Japanese cinematic history.

Jeck received a degree in English at Yale University and a degree in film at New York University.

He has worked as a former program planner for the American Film Institute Theatre, hosted International Mysteries since 2000, written notes and hosted events for Film Forum and the National Gallery of Art; while at times lecturing at universities such as Johns Hopkins and Yale.

Jeck is planning on teaching his first course at Mason this coming fall. This course will be JAPA 320 and will concern Japanese cinema.

Jeck himself does not have formal education concerning Japanese cinema, but once he took the interest to watch a few Japanese films, he went on to immerse himself completely into it and it is seen in his work.

He has watched hundreds of different Japanese films, which allowed him to research Japanese film techniques. Therefore, he is now a loyal fan of Ozu.

“I am excited to teach at Mason,” Jeck said. “It is a much more modern campus in comparison to Yale.”

Jeck said, “I love what I do because my job is my hobby.”
Fellow Mason Professor Ami Motro said, “I teach computer sciences, but I am also a movie fanatic. I really enjoyed the film because I have not really explored Japanese cinema, and this was a great example of it.”

The AFI Theater was located in the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. before moving to Silver Spring, Md.

In his capacity as program planner, Jeck had to select the pieces that the theater would play, and then write reviews about the films themselves and why he would picked them.

Jeck said that Late Spring is one of his favorite Japanese films. He lavishes praise on director Ozu, who he called “one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, period.”

Ozu was a prolific filmmaker in his native nation and known throughout his life as the premiere Japanese director.

Born in 1903 in Tokyo’s Tokugawa District, Ozu first took an interest in cinema as a young boy at boarding school, where he missed class to watch movies in local theaters.

He began a long career in 1927, when, at the age of 24, he released The Sword of Penitence, the first of 54 cinematic productions.

Ozu’s 1932 work, I Was Born, But… was hailed by his countrymen as the first serious social commentary in Japanese film history and is still regarded as a landmark movie today.

In 1937, as the Japanese Empire accelerated its expansion into the Pacific, Ozu was drafted into the armed forces and sent to China.

In 1943 he was stationed in Singapore, where he was first exposed to American films.

Orson Welles’s iconic 1941 debut Citizen Kane was said to be his favorite and an influence on his later work.

After World War II ended, Ozu continued to direct, releasing twenty-six films in the last five years of his life.

Late Spring, which he made in 1949, is regarded as one of his defining works. Jeck, who spoke of the film to the Johnson Center attendees, says that what distinguishes Ozu is his ability to turn events into “rites of passage in every life.”

Ozu’s cinematic appeal centered on the fact that he could make movies, whose characters and plots were accessible and applicable to most viewers, and according to Jeck, Late Spring was no exception.

Jeck described the reaction of a friend who saw Late Spring: “He said, ‘I felt so bad, felt so good, I didn’t know how I felt.’”

Jeck added with a smile, “That’s Ozu.”

Russell Whitacre, a junior anthropology major, came to the event simply for pleasure. “I like Japanese films,” Whitacre said. “I figured I’d give it a try…It was interesting. There was a lot to absorb.”

“He has some good things to say,” Whitacre said. “[He added] some interesting tidbits I didn’t know.”