36-Late Spring . Director:Yasujiro Ozu- Cast:Setsuko Hara,Chishu Ryu ,Yumeji Tsukioka ,Haruko Sugimura and Hohi Aoki.

"Arriving at the hospital, I heard that Ozu was in a critical condition. Suddenly, I felt vacant. I couldn't help thinking he was carried off by someone before our eyes. When I saw his face, I don't know why, but I left the room and shouted, "God damn you!", as if the kidnapper was running away.

At the hospital, faced with his body, I didn't feel like crying at all. Just as my eyes met Hara-sans' (Setsuko Hara-Actor in many of Ozu's films), I burst into tears. Looking back, that's the moment when I realised his death.

Ozu, man of spirit of clown, was really humorous. So I hate to treat him as legend and worship like a God... The clown is lonely, but he must hide his loneliness and play the fool joyfully, comically. That's the spirit of Ozu's film."
-Yuharu Atsuta-(Ozu's Cinematographer)


"In 1998 when Kurosawa died, Yamada Yoji, who is now a most popular and celebrated director in Japan, was featured in one of the special TV programs in memory of him. Yamada told us about a very interesting episode: Kurosawa once had invited him to his house, and then continued, " I visited him, and was ushered to his room or study, and there I saw Mr. Kurosawa watching Mr. Ozu's film. I don't remember the film's title he was watching then, but I was a little sad to see him watching Mr. Ozu's film, because, you know, Mr. Kurosawa's films are very different from Mr. Ozu's. Mr. Kurosawa's films are more dynamic and big scaled in picturing things or humans than Mr. Ozu's. Then, I felt a little sadness and thought that Mr. Kurosawa was getting old. You see, he was more respected and praised abroad, which, I was afraid, might make him very lonely in his late years.
We don't know the extent to which Kurosawa liked Ozu in his late days, but we can sense some of his deep affection for Ozu in his last film "Not Yet"(1993)."