An Autumn Afternoon / A Hen In The Wind (Blu Ray and DVD)

Yasujiro Ozu's captivating final film, An Autumn Afternoon, displays the master director's skills at their consummate best. Ozu regular Chishu Ryu (Tokyo Story) plays Shuhei Hirayama, a concerned father eager to find a husband for his faithful daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) before she sees out her days caring for him. A cast of colourful characters weave seamlessly in and out of the story, highlighting themes of loneliness and fear for the future with deep poignancy and ironic humour. Ozu's rarely-seen post-war film A Hen in the Wind (1948) is also included here. In a Japan recently devastated by WWII a devoted but near destitute mother waits for her husband's demobilisation. When her son falls seriously ill she turns to prostitution to pay his hospital bills.