Late Autumn (1960) review

Never shy about re-using his old material, Ozu reconfigured his 1949 film Late Spring, about a father trying to marry off his daughter, to this slightly different story about several men intervening to marry off the only daughter of a widow. Ozu's I'll-get-there-when-I-feel-like-it approach is really obvious here - he's more about methodical shot construction than pacing - although the light touch he brings to the material compensates somewhat. As a Westerner, I'm not sure I'm in complete agreement with the strong pro-marriage angle - whatever's wrong with leaving a single woman alone? - although the function of arranged marriages is to better society rather than follow that foolish impulse we call 'love.'