Later: Some reconsiderations on 2nd viewing of Late Spring

I did watch the "commentary" version on the Criterion DVD of Ozu's Late Spring and found it very insightful and informative (not always the case), which led me to reconsider some aspects of the film. Yes, it's still a very slow and deliberate piece of work and will never be and could never be a "big hit," but it's a really fine work of art and, on second viewing, I picked up some insights (Ozu is that way - subtle in every scene and gesture). The commentator noted that Ozu has a surprisingly modern and open narrative technique, and I think that's exactly right: he introduces plot elements that fool us and deceive us, as life does sometime: he clearly sets up a potential romance between Noriko and her father's editorial assistant, until we learn that he is engaged - and even has a scene were he seems to be coming on to Noriko, inviting her to violin concert, and when she says his fancee wouldn't like that he brushes that away - we seem to be heading toward a story in which they become a couple, but that plot strand vanishes. Ozu introduces scenes and leaves them alone and unexamined - such as showing Noriko and her father's friend entering an art exhibit - but we never see them at the exhibit, nor do they ever mention it. Is there more to their lives that we're not seeing? He also talks about the very special relationship between N. and her father - I think he misses something there, as the relationship is filled with Oedipal tensions and with sexual frustration. N has a very odd, frightened attitude toward physicality, toward men, toward marriage - and we can't help but, by the end, feel that her marriage, which we never see, is unlikely to succeed. I like the Noh theater scene more on 2nd viewing, as we see that the long (7 minute) sequences is really just about a few subtle gestures of recognition - not by the Noh actors but by Noriko, her father, and his supposed fiancee. I was very struck by the sorrowful plea N. made to her father during the Kyoto sequence: why can't we stay like this forever? - I had missed the pathos there on first viewing - and even more by the final scene of her father alone in his apartment, peeling an apple (some kind of echo of her discussion early on about peeling a radish - which made almost no sense in translation - but maybe it's something he can do well and she cannot) as he lets the peel drop and then bows his head: the rest of his life will be different, lonely. The commentator noted that we know nothing about N.s mother - very true - and that we learn little about the war - although I think we learn a lot by how little they talk about the war - and see no signs of destruction (probably so as to pass the American-occupying censors). Finally, I noticed how still the cameras are throughout - always with that tatami-mat perspective and throughout the film hardly a single tracking shot (only perhaps the bicycle trip and the petulant walk home after the Noh theater). The plot could be recounted in about two minutes, but the subtleties of style an narration take along time to discuss, analyze, and figure out - surely one of the marks of a great artist.