Darker and more melodramatic that the usual Ozu, and perhaps a little less successful. Still, this is a very good film.

What appears simple in Ozu is really quite complex. In this, the director reflects life as it is, taking an audience along a winding paths that lead to tragedy and if not outright joy, a kind of melancholic hope. The film cuts at just the right moments, Ozu building a rhythm to the many set-up shots, or cutting directly from one scene to another in a way that deepens the significance of the moment (e.g. the cut from the clinic to the baby). Hara is subdued, but wondrous as always.

Perhaps not the best showcase of Ozu's style, but certainly some of his most compelling characters ever created. Just as the subject is darker, the screen itself is darker, too. The low-contrast black and white adds such a perfect tone to the entire film.

There's something about this dark tale from Ozu that's never sat too well with me (compared to his best work that is, cause this is still fine). The acting talent is among Ozu's best, Ryu & Hara are in top-form, but its one of his slowest paced; with the final 40 min. being the stand-out. The elements of drama have never been so unrestrained but I can't decide if its for the best, at times it works better than others [see ----> scene where boy gets slobber-knockered].

Familiar Ozu: same or similar actors, camera style, characters, subject matter, music, and even titles. But it can rarely be dismissed as remaking the same movie over and over again. Each has a distinctiveness to it, and one element or another in the Ozu stew is tweaked. This one starts out like any of the others but gradually reveals itself to be a much darker and more overtly dramatic film. It's shocking to see characters confront each other so boldly in an Ozu film. Shocking but refreshing.

I was really hungover when I watched this, so I figured Ozu's style would be perfect, but I might have been mistaken. The first half showed way too much restraint, even for him, and it didn't start to grow on me 'til the second half, where, while he never broke from his sensibilities, the performances were unusually aggressive. Awfully slow too.

It takes a while for Ozu to get all his story elements into place here, but once everything comes together the real beauty of this story shines through. The rare bits of black comedy perfectly balance the overwhelming drama to create one of Ozu's finer moments.