Yasujirō Ozu / 小津安二郎 · 1962
An Autumn Afternoon
秋刀魚の味
The father’s tears after the wedding remain within the everyday; death, separation, and grief flow through the same temporal series.
Film details
- Original title
- 秋刀魚の味
- Director
- Yasujirō Ozu / 小津安二郎
- Year
- 1962
- Region
- Japan
Film analysis: how shots organize concepts
Repeated office, bar, and house reduce the decision to marry off a daughter from dramatic event to everyday variation; only after it is complete does the father see irreversible time in the empty home.
- 01Repeated spaces accumulate pressure
Shūhei Hirayama repeatedly discusses his daughter's marriage at office, school reunion, bar, and home; routine continues and no single conversation determines the result.
Action-causality disperses across similar everyday series, whose slight repetitions gradually form irreversible pressure. - 02Another household becomes a foresight
He visits his impoverished former teacher and sees him running a noodle shop with the unmarried daughter who stayed to care for him; their gestures and cramped space bring him to a pause.
The everyday scene issues no command, yet makes Shūhei see a possible future for his own household. - 03Completed action leaves empty time
After his daughter appears in bridal dress, the wedding is passed over quickly; Shūhei drinks at a bar, returns home alone late at night, sits in the empty house, and weeps.
Only after the marriage task is complete does a time of separation appear that action cannot cancel; the organizer becomes a viewer.
Close-reading questions
- 01How do the bar, empty house, and father's tears after the wedding let separation continue through the everyday rather than form a dramatic climax?
- 02How do repeated office, bar, and household spaces accumulate an irreversible time without turning it into a singular event?
Analysis and scene sources
Shots and scenes
Primary texts, scholarship, and locators
Theory coordinate: Cinema 2, ch. 1, pp. 14–15
- 01Cinema 2: The Time-Image
Authoritative source for the standard translation, translators, ISBN, and publication date.
Open the atlas source record →
Viewing gateways and editions
- Verified complete Bilibili carrier: 小津安二郎 高分日影【秋刀鱼之味 (1962)】中文字幕bilibili.comOpen film page ↗
- Page access
- Accessible when checked
- Version extent
- Recorded as a complete version
- Source type
- User-uploaded page
Edition note: Chinese subtitles · complete single-part film · 1:53:36.
Link checked: 2026-08-13