Early Summer

Early Summer
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Yasujirō Ozu
Produced by	Takeshi Yamamoto
Written by	Kogo Noda Yasujirō Ozu
Starring	Setsuko Hara Chishū Ryū Chikage Awashima Kuniko Miyake
Music by	Senji Itō
Cinematography	Yūharu Atsuta
Edited by	Yoshiyasu Hamamura
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	October 3, 1951
Running time	125 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Early Summer (麦秋, Bakushū^?) is a 1951 film by Yasujirō Ozu. Like most of Ozu's post-war films, Early Summer deals with many issues ranging from communication problems between generations to the rising role of women in post-war Japan.

The plot concerns Noriko, who lives contentedly in an extended family household that includes her parents and her brother's family, but an uncle's visit prompts the family to find her a husband.

Noriko (Setsuko Hara), a secretary in Tokyo, lives in the extended Mamiya family at Kamakura, Kanagawa, which includes her parents Shūkichi and Shige (Ichirō Sugai and Chieko Higashiyama), her older brother Kōichi (Chishū Ryū), a physician, his wife Fumiko (Kuniko Miyake), and their two young sons Minoru (Zen Murase) and Isamu (Isao Shirosawa).

An elderly uncle (Kokuten Kōdō) arrives from the provinces to visit Tokyo, and reminds everyone that Noriko, who is 28, is at an age when she should marry. At work, Noriko's boss Satake (Shūji Sano) recommends a match for her involving a forty-year-old friend, Mr Manabe, who is a businessman and an avid golfer. Her other friends are divided into two groups—the married and the unmarried—who tease one another endlessly, with Aya Tamura (Chikage Awashima) her close ally in the unmarried group.

The Mamiya family applies gentle pressure on Noriko to accept the match proposed by Satake, primarily through their acceptance of the cultural assumption that it is time for her to marry, and that the match proposed is a good one for a woman of her age.