Equinox Flower

Equinox Flower Higanbana
Studio still showing from left: Ineko Arima, Fujiko Yamamoto & Yoshiko Kuga
Directed by	Yasujirō Ozu
Produced by	Shizuo Yamanouchi
Written by	Kōgo Noda, Yasujirō Ozu
Based on	novel by Ton Satomi
Starring	Shin Saburi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ineko Arima, Yoshiko Kuga
Music by	Takanobu Saitō
Cinematography	Yuharu Atsuta
Edited by	Yoshiyasu Hamamura
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	September 7, 1958
Running time	118 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Equinox Flower (彼岸花, Higanbana^?) is a 1958 color Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. The film is based on a novel by Ton Satomi. The film won the 1958 Blue Ribbon Award for Fujiko Yamamoto's performance as Best Actress.

Wataru Hirayama (Shin Saburi) is a wealthy Tokyo businessman. When an old schoolmate Mikami (Chishū Ryū) approaches him for help concerning his daughter Fumiko (Yoshiko Kuga), who has run off owing to a conflict with her father, he agrees. Finding her in a bar where she now works, he listens to her side of the story. Fumiko complains that her father is stubborn, insisting on arranging her marriage, whereas she has now fallen in love with a musician and is adamant to lead life her own way.

One day during work, a young man named Masahiko Taniguchi (Keiji Sada) approaches Hirayama to ask for the hand of his elder daughter, Setsuko (Ineko Arima). Hirayama is extremely unhappy that his daughter has made wedding plans on her own. He confronts her at home, during which he blows his top, and rules that she must remain locked at home until she sees the folly of her ways. Hirayama tries to find out more about Taniguchi from his subordinate.

Owing to the standoff, his daughter's friend Yukiko (Fujiko Yamamoto) tries a ruse in which she asks Hirayama's opinion concerning a similar situation – her mother forcing her to marry someone she didn't like. When Hirayama advises her to ignore her mother, Yukiko reveals it is all a setup and states that Hirayama has just given his consent to Setsuko's marriage.

Hirayama's wife Kiyoko (Kinuyo Tanaka) tries unsuccessfully to make him change his mind. She accuses her husband of being "inconsistent". Even his younger daughter Hisako (Miyuki Kuwano) is on the side of her sister, finding her father too old-fashioned. Finally, after the couple's insistence on getting married, Hirayama decides to give in by attending his daughter's wedding.