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The Approach of Autumn (秋立ちぬ, Aki tachinu), also titled Autumn Has Already Started, is a 1960 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse.

Plot

After the death of his father, Hideo and his mother Shigeko leave Ueda, Nagano, for Tokyo, where she starts a job at a ryokan, while Hideo moves in with his uncle's family. He befriends the slightly younger Junko, the daughter of Shigeko's employer Naoyo, herself the mistress of a married businessman who finances the ryokan. The two children start making repeated trips around the city together, which finally lead them to the ocean that Hideo only knows from pictures. Hideo is eventually left alone when his mother runs off with a guest and Junko moves away after her father sold her mother's business.

Cast

• Kenzaburō Ōsawa as Hideo
• Nobuko Otowa as Shigeko, Hideo's mother
• Kamatari Fujiwara as Hideo's uncle
• Natsuko Kahara as Hideo's aunt
• Yosuke Natsuki as Shotaro
• Futaba Ichiki as Junko (credited as Futaba Hitotsugi)
• Murasaki Fujima as Naoyo, Junko's mother
• Daisuke Katō as Tomioka
• Hisako Hara as Harue
• Seizaburō Kawazu as Kasao
• Kin Sugai as ryokan maid

Reception

In his 2008 Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors, film historian Alexander Jacoby called The Approach of Autumn a "precise, clear‒eyed story of a child's emotional life, with something of the bittersweet quality of Shimizu".

Legacy

The Approach of Autumn was screened at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 2006.

References

1. ^ "秋立ちぬ (The Approach of Autumn)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
2. ^ "秋立ちぬ (The Approach of Autumn)" (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
3. "没後50年 成瀬巳喜男の世界映画祭 (The World of Mikio Naruse 50 Years After His Death) Mikio Naruse Film Festival" (in Japanese). Shogakukan 神保町シアター (Jinbōchō Theater). Retrieved 25 March 2021.
4. Jacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-53-2.
5. "The Approach of Autumn". BAMPFA. 22 December 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2023.

External links

• The Approach of Autumn at IMDb
• Uhlich, Keith (28 October 2005). "Review: The Approach of Autumn". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
• Thrift, Matthew (20 August 2015). "Mikio Naruse: 10 essential films". British Film Institute. Retrieved 19 July 2023.

• 1960 films
• 1960 drama films
• Japanese drama films
• Films directed by Mikio Naruse
• Toho films
• Films scored by Ichirō Saitō
• 1960s Japanese films