10/11: Late Spring

Yasujiro Ozu is a director whose appeal is utterly inexplicable, and yet almost impossible to resist. Whenever I watch one of his quiet, deceptively simple films, I am inevitably mesmerized by the peerless rhythm of his images, the graceful composition of his low-angle, usually static shots, the subtle characterizations and rich emotional subtexts he draws from his talented casts. Late Spring is