Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

kurosawakira Perfection perfection perfection! This is the penultimate film by the one filmmaker that somehow always continues to amaze me and reassert the power cinema has. It's like reading a haiku by Bashô, or a poem by Merwin. Something made in a different time and place, yet still so strongly present in the here and now.Regardless of the pervasive and thoroughly Ozuesque marriage dealings, this film is really about death. Its imminence, immutability. Its invisibility. The comedy, of which there's plenty, is balanced and ultimately cancelled out by what unfolds, and the final funeral procession is worthy of Welles' "Othello" (1952) in its bleak finality, and that smoke from the crematorium is among the darkest and most beautiful metaphors in all of Ozu — our life vanishes with our body either into the ground, or as is appropriate in the Japanese culture, into thin air. It vanishes. For a moment a kind of an emblem of it lingers in the air, and then even that token is gone.And as only Ozu can, there's always the comic undersong, no matter how dark the waters we're treading. (This works both ways, mind!) The past is on its way out, the present is colliding with the future. It's the old paterfamilias who's growing into a child again, rekindling an old flame, failing to act his age at the gate of death, and it's the daughter who tells him off (the brother all tight-lipped and spooked about mentioning it, failing to step up. As is often the case, the females are perfectly capable of coping not their own, thank you very much.I think Ozu's impact is the strongest when I'm away from him for a while. Then I get used to other ways of seeing things, yet when I go back to him the effect is stupendous: how he frames a shot of a doorway, a train station, of what seems to be the most "insignificant" transitory shot between scenes is beyond words. But it's always in that which many of us find "insignificant" where he finds a whole new universe waiting to be explored, and cherished. The beauty of his cinema is why I love film. It's the great friendship that lasts.Seeing as the BFI are either incapable or unwilling to complete their Ozu project and might not actually have the rights to this film anyway, and now that Criterion have pushed from the mainline into the Eclipse, I wonder when we might see a decent Blu-ray of this wonderful film.

Luis Angel Gonzalez Even though I had promised myself I wouldn't make more reviews for any Ozu's work (if you like his style, you'll probably like all of his works), I just obviously can't seem to contain myself, as I think Ozu deserves more praise and recognition.The family Kohayagawa are preparing themselves to marry one of the family members, Noriko, the youngest daughter, while her sister Akiko, widowed with two children, receives a marriage proposition by a man who is socially and economically well – placed. The family patriarch, however, has a curious behavior. He constantly visits his former lover Tsune, behavior for which his daughter Fumiko reproaches him. The old man suffers from a sudden heart attack, though, which leads Fumiko to not reproach him anymore.You may have noticed this is yet another Ozu's film based on family matters. Indeed, it seemed to me this was sort of a rehash of his former efforts because he repeats many of his old dramatic scenes. Although if you are only reviewing that aspect of the film you would be missing the point, as I think this is yet the most beautifully shot and image – based film in his entire filmography. I found myself contemplating every single frame of the many surprisingly shot scenes, even though the plot didn't get me all that hooked. The amazing colors all around the film also help enhance the beauty of its content.Regarding the acting, I would just have to mention it is incredible and fitting to what's being portrayed (as usual in Ozu's films). However,one thing that always surprises me is the appearance of Chishi Ryu in all of Ozu's films; whether it is a complete appearance or just one or two simple scenes in the whole film, he's always there. We can see him almost at the end of the film standing by a lake next to a woman that seems to be his wife, beholding a chimney which expels the ashes of the deceased father of the Kohayagawa family. This film might be a tad weak on the plot side, but on the technical and image side is much stronger and worth watching.My score: 9/10

MartinHafer This is the second to last film of the famed Japanese director, Ozu. In many ways, it's typical of his work, such as the non-moving camera (using cuts instead of moving the stationary camera or zooming--things he never did) that is positioned slightly below the actors chests as well as the stories being about very ordinary people. Ozu loved stories where typical people dealt with transitions, aging and modern live in Japan. However, unlike most of the other films I have seen (and I've watched quite a few), the characters in THE END OF SUMMER ("Kohayagawa-ke no aki") are seemingly less noble and more difficult to like. While flawed characters are certainly NOT unusual in an Ozu film, not connecting with them is unusual--and I assume most watching the film will have a harder time making that connection with the people in the film.The film is about an older man (probably about 65 or so) who owns a small sake brewery. His wife has died several years prior and he has three daughters and a son. Two of the daughters live with him (one is a widow, the other never has married) and the issue that concerns them is marriage. The widow is rather ambivalent about a recent marriage proposal--she's content to live with her father along with her son. The other is less content but does not want to marry the man the family has picked for her.The third daughter seems really, really concerned about her father and I was unable to determine if she lived with him or not--but she sure was bothered by her father, as he's been secretly visiting his old mistress. Considering that this damaged her parents' marriage years before, it is understandable about the daughter's misgivings--though considering that the mother has been dead for some time, her worrying does seem a bit excessive. However, it's not completely unwarranted, as the mistress and particularly her daughter are very materialistic and nasty. As for the son, he's pretty much out of the picture throughout the film. You know that he works for the family business but otherwise he stays out of the intrigues.This conflict between the older man and his mistress as well as his daughters' possible marriages is an interesting situation and is rather reminiscent of the film EAT, DRINK, MAN, WOMAN---though THE END OF SUMMER is frankly much less interesting and enjoyable. In fact, that is a problem for the film. While very well made (especially the acting) and in some ways interesting, the film just plods along very, very slowly and never really grabs your attention. It certainly isn't a bad film but never seems to make the most of the interesting situation. And, the ending, seems awfully depressing--needlessly so. I know that die-hard Ozu fans won't be able to believe I only gave the film a 6 (I'd prefer to make it 6.5, but can't). It's just that compared to all the other terrific films he made, this one is a disappointment and a "lesser" film. For more satisfying Ozu, try AN AUTUMN TALE (his next film). either version of FLOATING WEEDS or LATE SPRING (my personal favorite).

Tom Snyder It is a bunch of baloney to say that END OF SUMMER is far behind Ozu's other efforts. I have seen most if not all of Ozu's most acclaimed works, and END OF SUMMER is the best one I've ever seen. It even surpasses TOKYO STORY, which many scholars claim is Ozu's best masterpiece, one of the greatest movies of all time. For my money, END OF SUMMER is one of the top five foreign movies of all time. The beautiful photography is sublime; the movie contains some of the funniest things in any Ozu movie; and the ending is one of the most heartbreaking, most superbly visualized endings ever put on celluloid! I just can't say enough good things about this movie. There may be another Ozu movie I haven't seen that surpasses this one, but I sincerely doubt there's more than one, if there's even one.