{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,19]],"date-time":"2025-11-19T10:30:31Z","timestamp":1763548231641,"version":"3.45.0"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,19]],"date-time":"2025-11-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1763510400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"ERC Consolidator Grant FILM AND DEATH","award":["101088956"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["101088956"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Arts"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This article reconsiders Yasujiro Ozu\u2019s An Autumn Afternoon (1962) as a cinematic \u201canti-testament\u201d, a final film that eschews resolution, culmination, or closure in favour of subtle continuity, repetition, and quiet disappearance. Situated between the Japanese aesthetic of mono no aware and Western existential philosophy, Ozu\u2019s final work embodies an ethics of impermanence and restraint, where cinema becomes a contemplative practice rather than a narrative of finality. Through formal strategies such as the low \u201ctatami shot,\u201d fixed camera, and elliptical editing, the film materialises time as presence, not progression. Drawing on Heidegger\u2019s conception of aletheia, Cavell\u2019s ethics of acknowledgment, and Tarkovsky\u2019s reflections on haiku, this study argues that Ozu develops a philosophy of parting grounded in repetition, care, and relationality. Rather than a monument to his oeuvre, An Autumn Afternoon offers a visual ritual of transmission, where the invisible dwells within the visible, and the act of letting go becomes cinema\u2019s most philosophical gesture. In doing so, Ozu dissolves the notion of the cinematic testament, transforming it into a meditative cadence of impermanence.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/arts14060149","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,19]],"date-time":"2025-11-19T10:02:13Z","timestamp":1763546533000},"page":"149","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The Anti-Testament of Ozu Time, Finitude and Repetition in An Autumn Afternoon"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Patr\u00edcia","family":"Castello Branco","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Filosofia da NOVA (IFILNOVA), Nova University of Lisbon, 1099-085 Lisbon, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bordwell, David (1988). Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema, BFI Publishing.","DOI":"10.2307\/431149"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Cavell, Stanley (1976). Must We Mean What We Say?, Harvard University Press."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Cavell, Stanley (1979). The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy, Oxford University Press."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Deleuze, Gilles (1989). Cinema 2: The Time-Image, University of Minnesota Press."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Desser, David (1988). Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema, Indiana University Press.","DOI":"10.2979\/5775.0"},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Cook, Ryan, and Gerow, Aaron (2024). Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, University of California Press."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Heidegger, Martin (1958). Al\u00e8th\u00e9ia. Essais et Conf\u00e9rences, Gallimard."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Macquarrie, John, and Robinson, Edward (1962). Being and Time, Blackwell."},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Heidegger, Martin (1991). A Origem da Obra de Arte, Edi\u00e7\u00f5es 70."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Heidegger, Martin (1997). Introdu\u00e7\u00e3o \u00e0 Metaf\u00edsica, Instituto Piaget."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"McDonald, Keiko I. (2006). Reading a Japanese Film: Cinema in Context, University of Hawai\u2018i Press."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Montaigne, Michel de (1907). Essais, \u00c9dition Michaud."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Okakura, Kakuz\u014d (1906). The Book of Tea, Putnam."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Zalta, Edward N., and Nodelman, Uri (2024). Japanese Aesthetics. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2024 Edition), Stanford University. Available online: https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/archives\/spr2024\/entries\/japanese-aesthetics\/."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"Grube, George Maximilian Anthony (2002). Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo, Hackett. [2nd ed.]."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.1525\/fq.1963.17.2.04a00040","article-title":"Yasujiro Ozu: The Syntax of His Films","volume":"17","author":"Richie","year":"1963\u20131964","journal-title":"Film Quarterly"},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Richie, Donald (1974). Ozu: His Life and Films, University of California Press."},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Schrader, Paul (1988). Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer, Da Capo Press."},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Tarkovsky, Andrei (1998). Esculpir o Tempo, Martins Fontes."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ueda, Makoto (1991). Literary and Art Theories in Japan, Press of Case Western Reserve University.","DOI":"10.3998\/mpub.18737"}],"container-title":["Arts"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-0752\/14\/6\/149\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,19]],"date-time":"2025-11-19T10:24:56Z","timestamp":1763547896000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2076-0752\/14\/6\/149"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,19]]},"references-count":20,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12]]}},"alternative-id":["arts14060149"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/arts14060149","relation":{},"ISSN":["2076-0752"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2076-0752"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,19]]}}}