Film Review – Equinox Flower
Title: Equinox Flower
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Year: 1958
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Criterion Eclipse DVD
Equinox Flower doesn’t seem like an Ozu film in plot. Although the first half of the film sets up the family drama like the two previously reviewed movies (Early Spring and Tokyo Twilight), the tone of Equinox Flower is a large shift from those. Ozu is showing a similar world to the ones he’s shown before, but with different actions by the protagonists and a very different result.
The father figure is once again the most important character, but this one is more mean than many others by Ozu. He is more strict and stubborn. The mother is a very forgiving and diplomatic figure between him and the daughters. But rather than the daughters making the wrong moves, the father is the one who causes most of the household trouble.
The big tone shift is near the end of the film, where the father gives in to those around him and accept the decisions of his daughter. Rather than ending in a sad result and having to accept the tragedies of life, Equinox Flower does the opposite. The unfortunate result, which you may expect from an Ozu film, never happens. It ends with kind of a “everything will work out” ending. That isn’t to say Ozu isn’t giving a message to his audience. Equinox Flower gives its message by telling the viewer how their decisions could work out for the better, rather than how they could turn out for the worst.
Overall, it was a little strange for a drama to be dramatic without a major death or abandonment. Almost a polar opposite of Tokyo Twilight in this point (though there are several references to the events of Tokyo Twilight in Equinox Flower). But the “good result” is not always a very cheerful one. There still seems to linger a kind of stubborn reluctance to appreciate the fortunate turn of events. The father does not really gain any happiness in life. He just doesn’t lose it. Similarly, the film doesn’t move one in a way to act differently, but allows one to more passively see the other side of the balance. Because of this, one’s appreciation of life are more a result of one’s inner feelings than the events themselves.
Rating: 5 /5
Leave a Reply