Ozu's Muse :Setsuko Hara

Like many directors Yasujiro Ozu had the habit of using many of his same actors. Probably his most frequent actor is Chishi Ryu who's roles would range from the biggest part to the smallest. However I wanted to focus more on one of Ozu's most frequent leading ladies, and that was the luminous Setsuko Hara.

There isn't much written about Hara, as far as I know she is still alive and living privately in Japan. She retired from acting in 1963 not soon after Ozu's death. There has been some speculation as to her relationship with Ozu and whether or not they carried on an affair, but I do not want to pry. Because of Hara's sudden retirement and disappearance from the public eye, she has been called "Japan's Garbo". She was a big star in Japan upon her retirement and unpset many fans and industry people alike when she left. She had said that she never liked acting and only did it to support her family, and once she could support them, she felt it was no longer necessary for her to keep doing it. In addition to the numerous classic Ozu films she appeared in, she also starred along side Toshiro Mifune in Kurosawa's "The Idiot".

I have not seen much of Hara's work other than her Ozu films, but I must say her performances in those films have me mesmerized. I have a reputation of easily falling in love with actresses that I like, and I don't think Hara is any exception. There is something about her that appeals to me. I first saw her in "Tokyo Story", where she plays the the former daughter in law to the elderly couple. In the film she is the only one who is decent to them even when their own children aren't. She always carries a certain sadness in her eyes in that movie, but she's hardly ever seen without a smile in her face. She has a heartbreaking scene near the end of the film as she is talking to the old man played by Chishu Ryu, where she tells about how guilty she feels for not thinking about her dead husband more than she should. All through the film she was not aloud to show her true feelings, and in this scene you can see it all come pouring out.

I think my favorite performance by her is in "Late Spring" where she is playing the daughter of an old widower (Ryu again). She is being pressured into finding a husband before she gets too old, but she is perfectly happy living with her father, however he does not want her to grow old alone. The relationship between father and daughter is very touching, it's a love story between them and not the man she must marry. The relationship is not shown in an obscene way but one very natural and beautiful. He has lost his wife, she has lost her mother, all they have is each other.

Hara did a remake of "Late Spring" years later with Ozu entitled "Late Autumn", this time Hara is the mother who marries off her daughter. This can be considered a remake, but in some ways I always thought of it more as a sequel. Hara could very well be the same character a few years older, but either way in both films, she always has this wise beyond her years look in her face, and a sad knowing of the inevitable.

Setsuko Hara captured me as an actress with grace and class, she had a very girl next door quality to her, but what catches me every time I see her is her sadness. In every Ozu film she's in, she always seems to be on the verge of tears but instead shows us a brave smile, and by doing that she lets her strength shine through.