'Late Spring, directed and co-written by Yasujiro Ozu, was released in 1949, which makes it an old film, or a film that has been new for a long time...' So begins this remarkable essay in narrative reconstruction. Film-critic, novelist and essayist Mars-Jones gives a virtuoso performance as the lost figure of film explainer, drawing out a host of meaning from the reticence of Ozu's classic Japanese movie.

'So long after its first release Late Spring is still limber and elusive,' enthuses Mars-Jones. Noriko Smiling breathes new life into both Ozu's film, and film studies as a whole. There has never been a film book like this.