Where Spring Comes Late (家族, Kazoku) is a 1970 Japanese film directed by Yoji Yamada.[1]
Plot
The Kazami family live on the island of Iōjima, Nagasaki, where Seiichi Kamazi works in a coal mine. With the coal mine closing, Seiichi decides to move to Hokkaido and become a dairy farmer. The family rides the train between the two islands (a roughly 3,000-mile journey). Along the way, they stop in Fukuyama, where Seiichi's brother Tsutomu lives, Osaka, where they attend Expo '70, and Tokyo. In Tokyo, the family's youngest daughter passes away. Genzō, Seiichi's father, reaches Hokkaido but passes away shortly after. He is buried in a Catholic ceremony. Despite Seiichi's misgivings, Tamiko (his wife) convinces him to stay and forge a new life for themselves.
Scholar Yoshikuni Igarashi called the film "a declaration of war against the regime of the high-growth economy." He views Seiichi's journey as motivated by his desire to maintain economic independence.[3]
References
^家族. Kinema Junpo Film Database (in Japanese). Retrieved 2011-10-22.
^Igarashi, Yoshikuni (2021). Japan, 1972: Visions of Masculinity in an Age of Mass Consumerism. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 88, 91. ISBN9780231551380.
