December | 2025 | Tanya's Astro Blog

1949 – Late Spring – (Banshun)

It’s a Japanese drama film directed by the great Yasujirō Ozu. It stars Chishû Ryû as Shukishi Somiya (the father) and Setsuko Hara as Noriko Somiya (the daughter). The plot is about a 27 year old woman taking care of her widowed father, and the societal pressure that she experiences, because she’s not married yet; even her father is even trying to convince her of this. It’s the first of the so-called “Noriko trilogy” in which Setsuko Hara plaus a woman named Noriko on each one – the other two being “Early Summer” and the much more famous “Tokyo Story“. I saw it on YouTube here.

People love telling others what to do, what they should spend their money on, how they should raise their kids, heck, even if, when, and how many kids they should have. In today’s society it is often seen as meddling, we have become quite individualistic, but we forget that often this advice comes from a place of good, that people actually care.

That is basically what I felt while watching the movie. In the beginning, I grew, if not angry, then annoyed at the aunt interfering in her niece’s life and even convincing her brother. But by the end she was so happy, convinced that good fortune was going to come upon their family, that even the father plays that game.

It’s a testament to the movie that I am still ambivalent about what the right path is. On the one hand, hey, it’s her life, she should decide what to do with it. On the other hand, it’s not like she’s harboring some grand plan or passion that would be destroyed if she got married. No, she just doesn’t want things to change. But in a society in late 1940s Japan, where everybody is still reeling from the war, personal fulfillment sort of takes a back seat.

Ok, so the themes seem pretty clear, how about the execution? Be ready for it to be slow. But so slow, that you get lost in that Japan with an amazing cinematography. At one point, they visit Kyoto and the pictures are so vivid, I swear, I could almost see color. And the slowness helps in discerning the feelings of everyone. How somebody says something matter-of-factly, but the camera lingers on a face, a sake cup, a dress for just long enough to let us know what’s really going on.

Most of the time that was fine, great even. However, at some points it became so slow as to become tedious. For example, there is a visit to a traditional Noh theater, which just drags and drags, I became restless and missed a realization, which thankfully was explained later.

I am quite happy that I chose this 25th movie as my last of 2025, it makes you contemplative heading into the New Year. I really loved this little project so far, picking out the next movie every 2 weeks, discovering something new or finally scratching something off an inner mental list. Next blog post will be a quick one with a ranking and then off we go with 1950-1974 in 2026! But for now, Happy New Year, may it bring you joy, health, good luck and of course… great movies!

1948 – Bicycle Thieves – (Ladri di biciclette)

It’s an Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It stars totally unknown actors Lamberto Maggiorani as the father (Antonio) and Enzo Staiola as the son (Bruno), who are looking for a stolen bike in poverty stricken post-WWII Italy. I saw it on YouTube, thanks to this amazing list I found on there. I chose it because it was at one time (1952) rated number 1 in Sight an Sound’s Greatest Movie of all time.

As a kid, I loved my bike. Rode it up and down our little neighborhood in the afternoons, down dirt paths, trying to get amazing jumps in. On the weekend my dad would take me to the BMX park and I would dive into the bowl with joy and try (and fail) some jumps on the half pipe. I even dreamt of my bike, that I could fly over the big cliff near our house, that I would win some bike race. I wasn’t even super good at it; I just loved the bike. Not for nothing, at one point I could recite you the lines of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, by heart. Poor Peewee’s beautiful red bike (mine was red, too) gets stolen and he has to track it down all over America, what’s not to like?

I was also captivated by the two staples of Italian cinema when I was young: Cinema Paradiso and Life is Beautiful. Both are centered around the relationship between a boy and his father figure and both boys are so cute to look at. The pictures I had seen of Bruno in this movie seemed enough to convince me to watch this movie.

But then… I kinda hated this movie. First of all, the bleakness – yes, of course, post war Italy is bleak. People are fighting for survival, there aren’t any jobs around. But that’s just it, everybody is miserable, everybody is suffering, of course some people are going to resort to stealing. I could just simply no warm up to the main character. So self righteous, as if he deserved special treatment, as if he is the only one to be believed by the police. He gets all indignant and impatient when his wife goes to see a fortune-teller and nags at her, but then he goes to see her himself and whines that his wife nags at him. But the worst is his treatment of his son, he constantly yells at him when all he’s trying to do is to help his father. Poor kid falls and gets scraped in the rain, gets beaten by his old man and in the end is berated for having such a dead beat dad.

And the movie drags, too. It gets boring after a while to go from street to street of Antonio accusing yet another person of stealing his damn bike. There are some scenes, which are cute, for example Bruno eating his mozzarella sandwich (yum!), but I had to stop the movie at several points, because I was bored. Sorry, but I will just go back to Pee-Wee and let Antonio wallow in his misery.

This is my second-to-last entry for this year and I don’t want to end my last entry on a sour note, so before I leave, I want to wish you, some happy holidays and merry Christmas! Thanks for reading the blog!