An Autumn Afternoon
Shochiku | Release Date: May 20, 1964 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
91
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
Ozu shows how fragile and yet burdensome the institution of the family is. Read full review
100
The Irish TimesTara Brady
Revisiting many of the master’s favourite themes – familial obligations, intergenerational frictions – Ozu’s 54th film delicately maintains its post-war critique. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineEric Henderson
The progression of Ozu’s style seems to parallel that of Jacques Tati, who moved from the mutable likes of M. Hulot’s Holiday into the glass-cut inflexibility of Playtime. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Ozu lets the story of uneasy transitions play out against a Japan that's undergoing changes of its own. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Ozu is one of the greatest artists to ever make a film. This was his last one. Read full review
100
CineVueBen Nicholson
Throughout, Ozu strikes a touchingly profound note whilst imbuing proceedings with his usual playfulness. Read full review
100
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
Ozu’s final film is a movingly valedictory affair, its familiar story of Ryu’s elderly widower marrying off daughter Iwashita carrying even more poignancy than usual as a poised and wise reminder of passing time and the inevitable approach of mortality. Read full review
100
Total FilmPhilip Kemp
Mellow and rich in ironic humour, the film carries an undertow of gentle melancholy; as so often with Ozu, its ultimate message is that loneliness is the human condition. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
No great director confined both his subject matter and technique like Yasujiro Ozu, and this, his final film, sums up so much of what makes that tunnel vision so eloquent. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneStaff (Not Credited)
A late classic that revisits old territory with masterly serenity and acceptance. [29 May 2009, p.C4]
90
The New York TimesVincent Canby
A profoundly simple, profoundly moving film. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Although many of the themes in An Autumn Afternoon are timeless, the film itself represents a snapshot of Japanese lifestyle in the 1960s. Read full review
80
The IndependentGeoffrey Macnab
Yasujiro Ozu's final film, re-released in a restored version, is a stately, slow-burning but very moving family drama. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin Chang
Even if the story of a widower (the great Chishû Ryû) and his daughter weren’t such a naturally compelling variation on Ozu’s themes of family, devotion and sacrifice, the exquisite balance of hues and textures in every shot would render it essential viewing. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
The movie is haunted by death and loss, focussing on men who live in stifled grief and reconcile themselves to solitude—a personal desolation that is doubled by Japan’s collective mourning for those who were lost to the country’s catastrophic war. Read full review
75
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Stylistically it’s one of Ozu’s purest, most elemental works: no camera movement, very little movement within the frames, and hardly any apparent narrative progression. Appreciating Ozu is a matter of temperament—for some, his films are unbearably dull; for others, they are works of a unique serenity and beauty. Read full review
50
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
This view of contemporary middle class life in Japan is too leisurely paced, too sentimental in design and its humorous social comments too infrequent. Read full review
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