Director
Yasujirô Ozu
Leading Actors/Actresses
Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Setsuko Hara, Haruko Sugimura, Sô Yamamura, Kuniko Miyake, Kyôko Kagawa
Genre
Realistic drama
Language
Japanese
Awards
n/a
Date of Release
1953
Producer
Takeshi Yamamoto
Setting and Context
Post World War II Tokyo and Onomichi
Narrator and Point of View
Point of view is that of Sukichi and Tomi Hirayama
Tone and Mood
Pleasant and polite with an undercurrent of emotion
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonists are Sukichi and Tomi Hirayama, and Noriko. Antagonists are their children Koichi, Shige and Keizo.
Major Conflict
Sukichi and Tomi come to visit their children in Tokyo, but all of them are too busy to spend time with them.
Climax
Tomi suffers an illness on her way home from Tokyo and goes into a coma. She later dies.
Foreshadowing
Tomi tells her children not to come visit even if she or Sukichi take ill.
Understatement
The character's backgrounds are understated.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
n/a
Allusions
n/a
Paradox
The paradox is that Noriko takes better care of her dead husband's parents than their actual children do.
Parallelism
The black train cutting through Onomichi in the beginning of the film parallels it leaving at the end. It represents the connection to the big city and ultimately the lack of connection.
