is a 1958 color

Japanese film The , also known domestically as , has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2022, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced, producing 634 fi ...

directed by

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese filmmaker. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in the 1930s. The most pr ...

which is based on a novel by

Ton Satomi is the pen-name of Japanese author . page 5 Satomi was known for the craftsmanship of his dialogue and command of the Japanese language. His two elder brothers, Ikuma Arishima and Takeo Arishima, were also authors. Early life Satomi Ton was b ...

Plot

Wataru Hirayama (

Shin Saburi was a Japanese actor and film director. Biography Shin Saburi was born Yoshio Ishizaki in Utashinai, Hokkaidō, Japan. He made his acting debut in 1931 and started working for the Shochiku studio in the mid-1930s, where he became one of the st ...

) is a wealthy

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

businessman. When an old schoolmate Mikami (

Chishū Ryū was a Japanese actor who, in a career lasting 65 years, appeared in over 160 films and about 70 television productions. Early life Ryū was born in Tamamizu Village, Tamana, Kumamoto, Tamana County, a rural area of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu ...

) approaches him for help concerning his daughter Fumiko (

Yoshiko Kuga was a Japanese actress. She starred in '' The Woman in the Rumor'' (1954), ''Equinox Flower'' (1958), and '' An Inlet of Muddy Water'' (1953). She won a Mainichi Film Award in 1954, and a Blue Ribbon Award in 1956. She was the wife of actor ...

), who has run off owing to a conflict with her father, he agrees. Finding her in a bar where she now works, he listens to her side of the story. Fumiko complains that her father is stubborn, insisting on arranging her marriage, whereas she has now fallen in love with a musician and is adamant to lead life her own way. One day during work, a young man named Masahiko Taniguchi (

Keiji Sada is the stage name for a Japanese cinema actor active from the late-1940s to the early 1960s. His real name was Kanichi Nakai. He won the award for best actor at the 7th Blue Ribbon Awards for ('' I Will Buy You'') and . He was the father of the ...

) approaches Hirayama to ask for the hand of his elder daughter, Setsuko (

Ineko Arima is a Japanese stage and film actress. She has appeared in films of directors such as Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti ...

). Hirayama is extremely unhappy that his daughter has made wedding plans on her own. He confronts her at home and says that she must not go to work until she sees the folly of her ways. Hirayama tries to find out more about Taniguchi from his subordinate. Owing to the standoff, his daughter's friend Yukiko ( Fujiko Yamamoto) tries a ruse in which she asks Hirayama's opinion concerning a similar situation – her mother forcing her to marry someone she didn't like. When Hirayama advises her to ignore her mother, Yukiko reveals it is all a setup and states that Hirayama has just given his consent to Setsuko's marriage. Despite the ruse, Hirayama remains unchanged and Hirayama's wife Kiyoko (

Kinuyo Tanaka was a Japanese actress and film director. She had a career lasting over 50 years with more than 250 acting credits, but was best known for her 15 films with director Kenji Mizoguchi, such as ''The Life of Oharu'' (1952) and ''Ugetsu'' (1953). W ...

) accuses her husband of being "inconsistent". Even his younger daughter Hisako ( Miyuki Kuwano) is on the side of her sister, finding her father too old-fashioned. Finally, after the couple's insistence on getting married, Hirayama decides to give in by attending his daughter's wedding. After the wedding, Mikami reveals that he, like Hirayama, has agreed to let his daughter select her own marriage partner. After going for a short business trip outside Tokyo, Hirayama decides to visit the newly-weds at

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

by train, where Taniguchi is stationed by his company.

Cast

- Setsuko Hirayama * Fujiko Yamamoto - Yukiko Sasaki *

- Fumiko Mikami *

- Wataru Hirayama *

- Kiyoko Hirayama * Miyuki Kuwano - Hisako Hirayama *

- Shukichi Mikami *

- Masahiko Taniguchi * Teiji Takahashi - Shotaru Kondo *

Chieko Naniwa Chieko Naniwa (浪花千栄子) (November 19, 1907 – December 22, 1973) was a Japanese actress who was active from the 1920s to the 1970s. She is best known for playing geisha in several films, such as Kenji Mizoguchi's ''A Geisha'', and the Fo ...

- Hatsu Sasaki * Fumio Watanabe - Ichiro Nagamura *

Nobuo Nakamura was a Japanese stage and film actor, who appeared in many films by Akira Kurosawa, Yasujirō Ozu and Mikio Naruse. Biography A graduate from Tokyo Kaisei Junior High School, Nakamura studied at the Kawabata School of Painting. After the rejecti ...

- Toshihiko Kawai *

Ryūji Kita was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 280 films from 1937 to 1972. Career Kita started out in the film industry in the scenario department at the Shochiku studios, but moved to Nikkatsu in 1937 and made his acting debut in Tomu Uchida ...

- Heinosuke Horie * Ureo Egawa - Schoolmate at alumni reunion * Tsûsai Sugawara - Schoolmate at alumni reunion

Production

It is Yasujirō Ozu's first film in color, while Japan's first color film,

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and ...

's '' Carmen Comes Home'', had been released in 1951. Ozu chose

Agfa Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Agfa) is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes Analog photography, analogue and digital imaging products, software, and systems. The company began as a dye manufacturer in 1867 ...

film from Germany over

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

Fujifilm , trading as , or simply Fuji, is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the areas of photography, optics, Office supplies, office and Biomedical engine ...

, as he felt that it conveyed red colors better. The meaning of "equinox flower" or "higanbana" of the title is the red '' Lycoris''.

Shochiku is a Japanese entertainment company. Founded in 1895, it initially managed '' kabuki'' theaters in Kyoto; in 1914, it also acquired ownership of the Kabuki-za theater in Tokyo. In 1920, Shochiku entered the film production industry and establis ...

requested that Ozu shoot ''Equinox Flower'' in color primarily to showcase Fujiko Yamamoto, the

Daiei , based in Kobe, Hyōgo, is one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan. In 1957, Isao Nakauchi founded the chain in Osaka near Sembayashi Station on the Keihan train line. Daiei is now under a restructuring process supported by Marubeni ...

superstar it had borrowed for the film. The movie is constructed to spotlight the actress, who is elevated with extended dialogue scenes as a

protégé Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the perso ...

of Hirayama who drives the plot resolution from the sidelines, and she won the 1958 Blue Ribbon Award as Best Actress for ''Equinox Flower'' and ''

The Snowy Heron is a 1958 Japanese film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. It was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. Cast * Fujiko Yamamoto - Oshino * Keizo Kawasaki - Junichi Inaki * Yosuke Irie - Takashi Irie * Shūji Sano - Kumajirō Gosaka * Hi ...

'', which featured her in a much showier starring role. Yamamoto also receives what may be the only solo screen credit in any of Ozu's films, which starred some of the biggest names in Japanese cinema.

Release

Critical reception

''Equinox Flower'' garnered 88% approval on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, with an average rating of 7.4/10.

Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the ''Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a c ...

praised the film as "gentle, spare, and ultimately elusive, in a quietly satisfying way." ''Equinox Flower'' received four votes in the 2012 ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...

'' critics' poll of the world's greatest films.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

wrote, " In ''Equinox Flower'', a Japanese film by the old master Yasujiro Ozu, there is this sequence of shots: A room with a red teapot in the foreground. Another view of the room. The mother folding clothes. A shot down a corridor with a mother crossing it at an angle, and then a daughter crossing at the back. A reverse shot in the hallway as the arriving father is greeted by the mother and daughter. A shot as the father leaves the frame, then the mother, then the daughter. A shot as the mother and father enter the room, as in the background the daughter picks up the red pot and leaves the frame. This sequence of timed movement and cutting is as perfect as any music ever written, any dance, any poem."

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

gave it three of four stars: "Another gentle and quietly observant study of parents and children from Ozu, this time imbued with a sense of melancholy over traditional ways being supplanted by impersonal modern society."

Home media

In 2007,

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of art film, arth ...

released the film as part of the DVD box set ''Eclipse Series 3: Late Ozu''. In 2011, the BFI released a Region 2 Dual Format Edition (Blu-ray + DVD). Included with this release is a standard definition presentation of '' There Was a Father''.

References

External links

Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
*

{{Authority control 1958 films Films directed by Yasujirō Ozu Shochiku films Films with screenplays by Yasujirō Ozu Films with screenplays by Kogo Noda