People who don't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, aren't they rather cramped? -Setsuko Hara in the 1960s

People who don't drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, aren't they rather cramped? -Setsuko Hara in the 1960s

In Yasujiro Ozu's "Autumn at the Kobayakawa House" (1961), Setsuko Hara says, "Isn't it rather cramped for a person who doesn't drink or smoke? This line reflects not only the words of the character, but also her real image. In the early 1960s, Japan was in the midst of its rapid economic growth, and the image of women was changing from "good wives and wise mothers" to "independent individuals. Hara's many roles as mothers and widows symbolized the shifting values of that era. During the war, she was the goddess of national policy films, and after the war, she was a symbol of democracy, and she was made to play a social role on the screen. In Ozu's films, however, she is freed from this false image, and we catch a glimpse of her life-size image. The words "Without drinking..." are fictional lines, but they reach the audience as the voice of the actress herself, strongly impressing them with the fact that film is a mirror of reality. At the same time, it was an opportunity to
make Setsuko Hara even more mysterious and legendary.