A final iimage from Ozu's An Autumn Afternoon

Adding one note to yesterday's post on Ozu's An Autumn Afternoon: HOw could Ihave forgot to mention the final scenes in which the father and daughter prepare for her wedding ceremony and we see the father (Rya) buttoning himself into a "morning coat" - further evidence of the adoption of Western fashions especially for business and for formal occasions - and then the daughter makes her entry, in a traditional Japanese wedding dress, like someone stepping forward from the 18th century: a striking visual presentation of the clash of two cultures in postwar Japan, an attempt to hold onto traditional values and ideals against the tidal wave of Western ideas and commerce. The irony is that she is giving up the traditional role of daughter tending to aging father in order to pursue her own life as wife and mother - though of course she is doing so at the urging of her father. Her bridal attire is a way to say: See what you've sacrificed, see what you're giving up.