The Salaried Life:
Early Spring by Yasujiro Ozu

July 18 & 19, 2007

Early Spring (1956) is the darkest of the films by Yasujiro Ozu that I have yet seen. Many of the scenes are washed in gray and there is no personality like that of Setsuko Hara to add a note of radiant goodness. The film can be understood as an exposition of the salaried life. Our glimpse into this life comes through the slowly developed story of a husband who cheats on his wife, but at the end learns something about the value of marriage in finding personal meaning within a life controlled by faceless corporations.

No one has much good to say about the salaried life. It promises a steady income, and in the small home of the main character (played by Chikage Awashima) we see the modest fruit of this way of life. This same economic level will be explored more humorously by Ozu in Good Morning (1959), but here we see the emotional dead ends to which this life leads.

The affair, begun almost accidentally as these two meet and enjoy themselves during an outing with other workers, seems at the beginning to be a way to let some light into the gray salaried life.. but the untenable nature of this relationship becomes clear when his boss asks him to accept a transfer and leave Tokyo to work for three years in the small town of Mitsuishi.

Some of the most significant scenes in the film are not directly connected to the plot. Near the end, as the main character is about to depart for Mitsuishi without his wife (who left him over the affair), we are shown a brief conversation in a bar.. the old man shown above volunteers his reflections on a lifetime of work as a salary man:

bartender: But you're a very hard worker.

old worker: I'm not so sure about that. I'm nearing the retirement age.

bartender: How many years have you worked?

old worker: It's exactly 31 years. I feel very tired.

bartender: Big retirement pay?

old worker: Hardly. That's the point. I hoped after retiring to open a small stationary shop near a school. Thought I'd just relax. But the retirement allowance won't be enough. That's what we got waiting for us. Just disillusion and loneliness. I've worked 31 long years to find life is just an empty dream.

Since the main character and the people around him are young workers.. at the gray beginning of a long career.. this dialogue with an old worker casts our eyes to the distant future. Ozu gives no real hope for the future and no reason to suppose that these young people will turn out any different than this old worker.

It is here in this gray view of life's possibilities that the importance of marriage takes a firm hold in the film. The main character obliquely talks over his marital problems with an older character that he trusts (played by the sagely Chishu Ryu). I have excerpted the important elements of their talk:

The advice here is to be good to a wife.. and the reason: no one is dependable as a wife. This is evident from the fact that the woman with whom he is having an affair could not possibly move to Mitsuishi, revealing that relationship to be an illusion. Further, a salary man needs a wife as a shelter from the coldness of the company.. which cannot care about an individual. Only marriage and family provides hope for personal meaning.

The two men look up to see a rowing team shoot past them. The leader of the boat calls out the strokes, and as a team they power through the calm water. It is a scene of teamwork and group accomplishment.. and no doubt we are meant to think about the regimented life of work in a company.

The older man, looking over at the rowing team, comments:

Those young men are in their "early spring". But the point Ozu has been making throughout this film is that people move on past their springtime.. and encounter disillusionment. Coping with this means holding on firmly to the bonds of family.. and the personal meaning that can come in that private space.

In the final scene of the film the young couple is reconciled and willing to start over again.. putting the affair behind them. It is a human moment. They are together, but not close.. and the screen is still dominated by gray.