Early Spring (早春, Sōshun) is a 1956 film by Yasujirō Ozu about a married salaryman (Ryō Ikebe) who escapes the monotony of married life and his work at a fire brick manufacturing company by beginning an affair with a fellow office worker (Keiko Kishi). The film also deals with the hardships of the salaryman lifestyle. "I wanted," Ozu said, "to portray what you might call the pathos of the white-collar life."With a runtime of 144 minutes, Early Spring is Ozu's longest surviving film, and his penultimate shot in black and white.