Each shot in Late Spring is striking on its own; the mature Ozu belongs to that rare category of filmmakers whose work can be recognized from a single frame.

"Movies resurrect the beautiful dead," Susan Sontag once wrote, and there's no better way to commemorate Hara than to watch her in Late Spring, a film in which she is heartbreakingly vibrant.

One of the best two or three films Ozu ever made.

Sweet, crushing, beautiful.