Late Spring aka Banshun Blu-ray (Criterion)
RELEASE DATE: April 17, 2012
One of the most powerful of the family portraits by Yasujiro Ozu, Late Spring tells the story of a widowed father who feels compelled to marry off his beloved only daughter. Eminent Ozu players Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara command this poignant tale of love and loss in postwar Japan, which remains as potent today as ever—and as strong a justification for its maker’s inclusion in the pantheon of cinema’s greatest directors.
Features: High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition / Audio commentary by Richard Peña, program director of New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center / Tokyo-ga (1985), filmmaker Wim Wenders’s ninety-two-minute documentary about director Yasujiro Ozu / PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Michael Atkinson and Japanese-film historian Donald Richie
