A young salaryman and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he embarks on an extramarital affair.
Direction
Ozu's legendary low-angle 'tatami shots'
Writing
Dialogue so mundane it cuts like glass
Editing
Those infamous pillow shots—stillness as punctuation
Director
Yasujirō Ozu
Chikage Awashima
Masako Sugiyama
Ryō Ikebe
Shôji Sugiyama
Keiko Kishi
Chiyo Kaneko aka Goldfish
Teiji Takahashi
Taizo Aoki
Chishū Ryū
Kiichi Onodera
So Yamamura
Yutaka Kawai
Haruko Sugimura
Tamako Tamura
Daisuke Katō
Sakamoto
Masami Taura
Koichi Kitagawa
Kumeko Urabe
Shige Kitagawa
Kuniko Miyake
Yukiko Kawai
Eijirō Tōno
Tokichi Hattori
Kōji Mitsui
Hirayama
Fujio Suga
Tanabe
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ozu made this during his 'late period' color phase that never came—he died still shooting black-and-white.
This 1956 salaryman is Japan's 'economic miracle' foot soldier: prosperous, hollow, spiritually homeless.
JP
