Alborz Mahboobkhah

As many have observed, Ozu is a filmmaker of the present, with elements of the past or future relegated off-screen. Time seems absent in his films precisely due to its omnipresence, like the serene still life of the transition shots that evoke sadness, making utmost happiness resemble the utmost sorrow. This is Ozu’s melancholy, the hour when things linger, captured in one of the most recurring phrases: “That can’t be helped.”