Criterion Blu-ray pick: The gentle precision of Ozu’s final film, An Autumn Afternoon

An Autumn Afternoon wasn't planned as the final film from Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu; it was just the last one he completed before he succumbed to cancer. But the film, my Criterion Blu-ray pick of the month for February, makes for a lovely and optimistic coda to a prolific career.

Released in 1962, Autumn revolves around a question to Ozu films, and to middle class Japanese culture: What to do when your loyal daughter is ready to marry? The daughter here is played by the radiant Shima Iwashita; the father is Ozu regular Chishu Ryu. The tone is classic Ozu: Gentle precision, perfect visual composition, and the formal humanism that distinguishes all of his films.

I always marvel at how much is happening right beneath the surface of the domestic sphere in Ozu's movies: so much quiet emotion and deep thought, such intricacies of family life. There's a touch of melancholy in Autumn, but not to the extent of his greatest masterpiece, Tokyo Story (also available on Criterion). When all is said and done, this unplanned valediction sings a song of quiet reconciliation.