SILVER

[HIGANBANA 彼岸花]
EQUINOX FLOWER stars Shin Saburi as Wataru, a tradition-bound businessman seeking an arranged marriage for his daughter, Setsuko (Ineko Arima). But modern, strong-willed Setsuko has other ideas and wants to marry the boyfriend she loves instead. With the help of her mother (Kinuyo Tanaka), she goes about trying to change her stubborn father's mind. Yasujiō Ozu's first film in color portrays one of his favorite themes: the familial generational divide in modernizing postwar Japan. He does so with his trademark gentle humor, emotional warmth and precise attention to visual detail. In addition to designing the advertising signs and posters that appear in the background, he made the ceramic teacups the characters use, and he famously placed a bright red teapot in various parts of the frame to give subtle pops of color to his domestic scenes. (Note courtesy of the National Museum of Asian Art.) DIR/SCR Yasujirō Ozu, from the novel by Ton Satomi; SCR Kōgo Noda; PROD Shizuo Yamanouchi. Japan, 1958, color, 118 min. In Japanese with English subtitles. NOT RATED

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