Early Summer (1951)

Setsuko Hara: Noriko Mamiya

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Aya Tamura : Husbands are all like that. That's why we don't marry.

  Noriko Mamiya : That's right, isn't it?

  Takako : You don't know anything about married life.

  Aya Tamura : Married life?

  Takako : Only married people understand.

  Aya Tamura : Once you're married, it's too late to understand.

• Noriko Mamiya : Wouldn't your husband live here with you?

  Aya Tamura : Out of the question. No real man would live with his wife's family.

• Shukichi Mamiya : We're parting ways, but we'll be together again. I wish we could live together forever, but that's impossible.

  Koichi Mamiya : Father and Mother, please come visit us now and then from Yamato.

  Noriko Mamiya : I'm sorry. I've broken up the family.

  Shukichi Mamiya : It's not your fault. It was inevitable.

• Noriko Mamiya : You have a habit of offering something and then taking it back.

• Koichi Mamiya : It's deplorable, what's happened since the war. Women have become so forward, taking advantage of etiquette.

  Noriko Mamiya : That's not true. We've just taken our natural place. Men were too forward up to now.

  Fumiko Mamiya : Hear, hear!

• Fumiko Mamiya : You drink quite a bit, Noriko.

  Noriko Mamiya : I like beer.

• Fumiko Mamiya : When was the last time Uncle visited?

  Noriko Mamiya : A year after the war ended. The station was so crowded.

  Fumiko Mamiya : I was still wearing those pants we wore during the war.

• Sotaro Satake : I'm glad you came. I wanted to talk to you.

  Noriko Mamiya : Yes?

  Sotaro Satake : Why don't you get married? It's about time.

  [Noriko giggles] 

  Sotaro Satake : I have a prospect. A classmate from the university, a little older than me. Lived in Calcutta for a long time. His name's Manabe. A good man. He's never been married. Not sure if he's still a virgin.

• Old Uncle : How old are you now, Noriko?

  Noriko Mamiya : [giggles]  Twenty-eight.

  Old Uncle : Huh?

  Shukichi Mamiya : She's 28 now.

  Old Uncle : Is that right?

  Shukichi Mamiya : About time to marry.

• Aya Tamura : I thought you were the type who could never leave Tokyo.

  Noriko Mamiya : Why?

  Aya Tamura : I imagined you'd live Western-style, with a flower garden, listening to Chopin. In your tiled kitchen, you'd have a refrigerator filled with Coca-Cola. I thought you'd be a housewife in a house like that. When I'd visit, you'd meet me on a covered porch, wearing a white sweater, with a terrier in tow, and you'd greet me over a picket fence, "Hellow, how are you?"