A very good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it seemed to have a decent reputation and since it was available on YouTube, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I wasn’t disappointed, that’s for sure. Since Ozu had such a strong reputation, I started to discover his work but it was only with this movie that I finally understood why the guy is considered a master. Indeed, it was such a fascinating portrait of a daughter and her father and, even though the setup was fairly simple, the end-result was however quite fascinating. I was first amazed by Setsuko Hara’s performance. She was so charismatic but there were also so many layers to her character, she was just quite spellbinding to behold. The movie was mostly focusing on her so, it took a little more time to notice, but I became also fascinated by Chishû Ryû who was playing the father. I don’t think I have seen such a strong bond and connection between family relatives brought forward not by blood or by growing together but by some very subtle and pitch-perfect acting. The material was also super interesting. Recently, I have seen some other Japanese vintage features like this one and I have noticed that, very often, the characters in these movies were stifled by the rigid Japanese rules and traditions. Here, you might expect something similar but I think it went much beyond that though. Indeed, the reason why Shukichi Somiya did push his daughter to get married was not only because it was the proper thing to do but, above all, it was an act of love because he wanted her to be happy. Sure, he was well aware of the fact that by getting married, there was no guarantee for happiness but, by staying and taking care of him, it was however sure that she would end up alone and possibly ostracized by her community. It was also quite fascinating how this whole situation was still relevant today more than 70 years later. Indeed, in Western countries, especially in the Netherlands where I live, kids tend to get really comfortable and take seemingly forever to leave their parents but, even though there is nothing really wrong with that, as depicted in this movie, when you get children, the goal is never to have them live forever with you, even if this process might be heartbreaking. Anyway, to conclude, I really loved the damned thing and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre. 

8/10