That Face/Tokyo Ga-ga

I recently picked up the Criterion release of Yasujiro Ozu's Late Spring. I had put off buying it because I already owned a Hong Kong copy of the DVD, but after passing on it for something flashier in the store so many times I finally broke down and bought it. And boy, am I glad I did. The transfer is incredible, the new translation adds so much more to the film, and Setsuko Hara has never looked better.

I admit it: I have a HUGE crush on Setsuko Hara. I first discovered her in Tokyo Story and was moved by her performance. Next I saw her in Early Summer and that's when my little heart started to flutter. The whole time I was watching, I kept thinking, "My God, I'll marry her!" But seeing her in Late Spring, well, that clinched it for me. I was hooked. I've since watched the movie probably 10 times and every time I fall in love with her all over again.

Actually, I fall in love with Noriko, her character. Something about her easy smile, her petulance, her ability to ride a bike… Well, maybe not so much that last part, but certainly her smile. I just want to climb into my TV and live happily ever after with her in an Ozu film. Apparently I'm not the only man to have had these thoughts. I think it was Donald Ritchie that said that a lot of men at the time wanted to marry her. It's not hard to see why: imagine that face smiling at you your whole life. (Even in Late Autumn, Ozu's remake of Late Spring with Setsuko Hara now in the parent role, she still looks great and gives her daughter a run for her money in the looks department, and Yoko Tsukasa is quite the bijin.)

Apparently Setsuko Hara never married. Setsuko, you know my email.

And speaking of Late Spring, the good people at Criterion have been kind enough to include Wim Wenders' early-80s filmic diary of Tokyo, Tokyo-Ga, in with the main Ozu film. While watching it I was reminded of Chris Marker's Sans Soleil. To my surprise, Wenders meets up with Marker at a Tokyo bar and discusses seeing that just-finished film. So there you go.