The Noh Scene - Anthony

     The noh scene in Late Spring is somewhat elusive to me in its complexity. It's hypnotic, otherworldly, and seemingly a chance for Noriko to meditate fully on the two pieces of news recently thrust upon her. First, we have the perspective of the audience, Noriko specifically. At this point in the film, she has yet to tell her father what her aunt told her, that she has is being pressured into marriage and that her father also has a marriage in his future. The noh setting forces her to sit across the theater from the woman her father is to marry, and continue to fester in her anger and betrayal, all the while being forced by convention to keep her composure. This feeling is intensified because the noh style of theatre is characterized by its thoughtfulness and sparse soundtrack, making it have an intrinsically introspective effect. As we see from the scene immediately following, she has not yet come to terms with any of these changes.

    Now let's look at the larger scene, with the actual content of the performance in mind. The effect of the music, the costumes, and the dancing create an unusual effect, almost as if these performers were ghosts from a bygone age. They feel consistent with some of the setting of the film, such as the Buddhist temple in Kyoto, but overall they seem out of place, an antique in the post-war Japan of the film. The content of the lyrics is also striking. There are many images of flowers throughout, particularly of blue irises and of orange blossoms. The blue iris primarily represents purification, which makes sense with the later image of Amida Buddha, a figure in Pure Land Buddhism. The lofty subject matter of the play is juxtaposed with the decidedly more mundane things that Noriko is experiencing. From one perspective, Noriko's struggle is belittled by the intonation of the Buddha, but her struggle could also be thought of as more concrete compared to the abstract coming of Amida Buddha. There is one common subject between the two, however: change. The image of the blue iris could be thought of more generally as change, and there is also an image in the song of a cicada shedding its shell. Both of these mirror Noriko's change throughout the film, presenting it in an explicitly painful and challenging light. 

    These are just my first thoughts, though. This scene is extremely complex.