--- title: "An Autumn Afternoon" year: 1962 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/an-autumn-afternoon" fi1m_id: "an-autumn-afternoon" imdb_id: "tt0056444" tmdb_id: 50759 wikidata_id: "Q1189572" fi1m_score: 86 critics_score: 85 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-26T14:28:22.452883+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T14:28:23.559346+00:00" region: "AZ" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # An Autumn Afternoon (1962) Directed by Yasujirō Ozu · 1h 53m · Drama ## Identity An Autumn Afternoon - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/an-autumn-afternoon - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** an-autumn-afternoon - **IMDb ID:** tt0056444 - **TMDB ID:** 50759 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1189572 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056444/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/50759, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1189572 **Fi1m score: 86** · Critics 85 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* Every man in Tokyo has an opinion on the daughter’s marriage, and nobody thinks to ask the daughter > Ozu’s last film returns to the widower and the daughter he must give away, and it is warm, funny and quietly sad. The comedy about refrigerators and golf clubs wears thin; Chishū Ryū’s face does not. ## Synopsis Shuhei Hirayama (Chishū Ryū), a widower with an office job in Tokyo, lives with his grown daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) and his younger son Kazuo (Shin’ichirō Mikami). His elder son Koichi (Keiji Sada) and Koichi’s wife Akiko (Mariko Okada) live in a small flat and are short of money for a refrigerator. Hirayama spends his evenings at a restaurant with two old schoolfriends, and one of them, Kawai (Nobuo Nakamura), keeps insisting that Michiko is of an age to marry and that Hirayama should find her a husband. Hirayama laughs it off until a reunion dinner for their old teacher, Sakuma (Eijirō Tōno), nicknamed the Gourd, who now runs a noodle shop and is looked after by a daughter who never left home. Koichi mentions a colleague, Miura (Teruo Yoshida), who might do. ## Review Yasujirō Ozu made this film in 1962 and did not make another; he died the following year. He had told the story before, most famously in [*Late Spring*](https://film.one/film/late-spring) in 1949, with the same actor, Chishū Ryū, as the widowed father who must give up his daughter. He tells it again here in colour, with more drinking and more jokes, and we think it is as good as most people say. Not quite the equal of [*Tokyo Story*](https://film.one/film/tokyo-story), but close enough that the argument is not worth having. Shuhei Hirayama (Ryū) works in an office, goes home to a house run by his daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita), and spends his evenings eating and drinking with two old schoolfriends. One of them, Kawai (Nobuo Nakamura), has decided that Michiko should be married and will not let the subject drop. The other has taken a wife younger than his own children and is teased about his pills. The joke, which Ozu and his co-writer Kōgo Noda never underline, is that a young woman’s future is being settled by men in a restaurant while she is at home doing the ironing. Nobody asks her. When somebody finally does, it is late, and the question has only one acceptable answer. The scene that caught us comes early. The friends hold a reunion for their old teacher, Sakuma (Eijirō Tōno), whom they used to call the Gourd. He gets drunk, they laugh at him, and then they drive him home to the noodle shop he now runs in a poor part of the city. We had been laughing too. Then his daughter came out from the back of the shop, middle-aged and unmarried and plainly worn down by him, and we stopped, and felt something close to shame. Hirayama feels it too, and the rest of the film is him trying not to become that man. Yûharu Atsuta’s camera sits low, about where a person kneeling would look from, and it does not move. Rooms are framed dead straight, doorways within doorways, and the colour is mostly grey and brown, so that a single red kettle or a red-and-white chimney stands out like a shout. Minoru Kanekatsu’s sets do as much as the script: identical offices, identical bars, a corridor in the Hirayama house that we come to know better than our own. Yoshiyasu Hamamura cuts away between scenes to empty rooms, factory stacks and a hallway with nobody in it, and holds them a few seconds longer than you expect. Takanobu Saitō’s score is light strings, almost a nursery tune, and it keeps playing over things that are not light at all. Ryū barely raises his voice. He nods, says “mm”, pours another drink, and the performance lives in how long he takes to answer. Iwashita has a harder job, because the script gives Michiko very little to want out loud. She is at her best in a scene where she is told bad news second-hand and Ozu lets her stand quite still and say almost nothing. Around them, Keiji Sada and Mariko Okada play the married son Koichi and his wife Akiko as a couple whose great crisis is a refrigerator and a set of golf clubs. Kyôko Kishida, as Madame Kaoru behind a bar Hirayama keeps returning to, gets one long look from him that explains why he does. The flaws are real. The young couple’s money squabbles are broad and repeated, and the second time round they feel like padding. A strand about a man Hirayama served with in the war, and a military march that gets played in a bar, is funnier than it is sad, and we are not sure the film knows which it wanted. And anyone who has seen *Late Spring* will find nearly every beat familiar. Ozu was remaking his own work on purpose, but that does not make it less of a remake. The original title refers to a fish that is never eaten on screen, which is Ozu’s kind of joke. The film ends where a story like this has to end, and he holds the last scene longer than is comfortable. It runs 113 minutes. Watch it early in the evening rather than late, and not alone if you can help it. *Fi1m score 86, published 26 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics receive Ozu’s final film with something close to reverence. The reviews describe it as mellow, tender and sad, with the familiar story of a widower marrying off his daughter carrying extra weight for being the last time Ozu told it. The praise clusters on tone: melancholy cut with dry, ironic humour, and a family drama in which father and daughter each give something up for the other. The colour also draws notice, a muted palette broken by careful splashes of red. The spread is narrow, with no outright dissent. Slant Magazine is the coolest, finding a work of bemused resignation rather than tragedy, though it admires the hard-edged visual style. Eye for Film calls it touching but not among Ozu’s most memorable. The Evening Standard, at the other end, ranks it alongside Tokyo Story, and The New Yorker adds a note others pass over: that beneath the melancholy sits pointed social criticism of postwar nostalgia. ## Straight answers **Is An Autumn Afternoon worth watching?** *An Autumn Afternoon* is worth watching for anyone with patience for a slow, quiet family drama, and we scored it 86. Ozu's last film is warm and funny about a widower being pushed to marry off his daughter, and Chishū Ryū's face carries it. The jokes about refrigerators and golf clubs are repeated too often, and it is not the place to start if you need a plot. **How long is An Autumn Afternoon, and what is it rated?** *An Autumn Afternoon* runs 1h 53m. It is a drama film. **Where can I watch An Autumn Afternoon in Azerbaijan?** *An Autumn Afternoon* is not on any streaming or rental service in Azerbaijan at the moment. It is available in 2 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does An Autumn Afternoon compare to Late Spring?** *An Autumn Afternoon* tells the same story as [*Late Spring*](https://film.one/film/late-spring), with Chishū Ryū again as the widowed father, but thirteen years later, in colour, with more drinking and more jokes. *Late Spring* is the sadder and more concentrated film, and the one we would show first. Anyone who knows it will find nearly every beat here familiar, though the reunion for the old teacher is new and the best scene in either. **What should I watch after An Autumn Afternoon?** After *An Autumn Afternoon*, try [*Late Spring*](https://film.one/film/late-spring) (1949, Fi1m 92): The same story and the same actor, thirteen years earlier and in black and white. Then [*Tokyo Story*](https://film.one/film/tokyo-story) (1953, Fi1m 92): Ozu’s elderly couple visit their children in Tokyo and are politely passed around; and [*Make Way for Tomorrow*](https://film.one/film/make-way-for-tomorrow) (1937, Fi1m 91): Leo McCarey’s Depression-era parents are split between their children; plainer and just as sad. ### Reviews we read (11) - **Time Out**, TJ (5/5): The review calls Ozu’s final film a movingly valedictory affair. It says the familiar story of a widower marrying off his daughter carries added poignancy. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/an-autumn-afternoon) - **Total Film**, Philip Kemp (5/5): Kemp describes the film as mellow, rich in ironic humour, and gently melancholy. He praises its variations on Ozu’s themes of marriage and inter-generational tension, while noting its view of loneliness as universal. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/an-autumn-afternoon-review/) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (A): Phipps regards Ozu’s final film as an affecting, bittersweet meditation on change. He praises Ozu’s ability to make everyday images and family transitions newly resonant. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/an-autumn-afternoon-1798204938) - **Evening Standard**, Derek Malcolm (90/100, inferred): Malcolm regards Ozu’s final film as the work of a master and equal to Tokyo Story. He praises its poignant, humorous portrayal of family life and its universal resonance. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/going-out/derek-malcolm-recommends-an-autumn-afternoon-9376295.html) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): Bradshaw regards Ozu’s final film as exquisitely tender and sad, a superbly composed family drama. He especially praises its delicate depiction of family burdens and the father and daughter’s painful mutual sacrifices. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/may/15/an-autumn-afternoon-review) - **Sight and Sound** (85/100, inferred): The critic regards Ozu’s final film as one of his most moving works, balancing emotional force with wry humour. They single out its subtly muted palette and occasional splashes of red for particular praise. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/a514f586-80d2-5ce9-ae1a-44a210fab6fe/an-autumn-afternoon) - **The New Yorker**, Richard Brody (85/100, inferred): Brody presents the film as humane and politically incisive, with a tender understanding of its characters. He singles out its blend of melancholy and social criticism, especially in its treatment of postwar nostalgia. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/dvd-of-the-week-an-autumn-afternoon) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (85/100, inferred): Canby presents the film as a profound work and a fitting final film from Ozu. The accessible headline offers no further detail about what the review singles out. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/08/archives/screen-a-profound-japanese-film-an-autumn-afternoon-was-ozus-last.html) - **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The page could not be accessed, so the critic’s verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be verified. The available page text provides no review details. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-an-autumn-afternoon-1962) - **Slant Magazine**, Eric Henderson (3/5): Henderson sees Ozu’s final film as a quietly affecting work of bemused resignation rather than a tragedy. He especially praises the increasingly precise, hard-edged visual style and its carefully balanced use of color. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/an-autumn-afternoon-dvd/) - **Eye for Film**, Merlin Harries (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the film touching and thought-provoking, though not among Ozu’s most memorable works. They praise its warmth and poignant depiction of the bond between father and daughter amid social change. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/an-autumn-afternoon-film-review-by-merlin-harries) ## Details - **Director:** Yasujirō Ozu - **Director:** Yasujirō Ozu - **Screenplay:** Kōgo Noda, Yasujirō Ozu - **Cinematography:** Yûharu Atsuta - **Editor:** Yoshiyasu Hamamura - **Music:** Takanobu Saitō - **Production design:** Minoru Kanekatsu - **Costume design:** Yûji Nagashima - **Producer:** Shizuo Yamanouchi - **Cast:** Chishū Ryū as Shuhei Hirayama; Shima Iwashita as Michiko Hirayama; Keiji Sada as Koichi; Mariko Okada as Akiko; Teruo Yoshida as Yutaka Miura; Noriko Maki as Fusako Taguchi; Shin'ichirō Mikami as Kazuo; Nobuo Nakamura as Shuzo Kawai - **Runtime:** 1h 53m - **First release (Japan):** 18 November 1962 - **Genres:** Drama ## Where to watch in Azerbaijan Not streaming, renting or buying in Azerbaijan at the last check. Also available in: ES, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Late Spring* (1949), Fi1m 92: The same story and the same actor, thirteen years earlier and in black and white. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/late-spring.md) - *Tokyo Story* (1953), Fi1m 92: Ozu’s elderly couple visit their children in Tokyo and are politely passed around. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/tokyo-story.md) - *Make Way for Tomorrow* (1937), Fi1m 91: Leo McCarey’s Depression-era parents are split between their children; plainer and just as sad. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/make-way-for-tomorrow.md) - *Still Walking* (2008): Kore-eda’s family lunch, where every kind remark has an old grudge under it. - *Yi Yi* (2000), Fi1m 92: Edward Yang watches three generations of a Taipei family over one long year. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/yi-yi.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/an-autumn-afternoon