This is a beautiful quiet film about people who care about each other deeply, but without any awareness of each other's point of view. It is this affection for each other that makes the film universal.
Other reviewers have focused on the clash between traditional pre-war Japanese values, and the influx of modern (for 1951) values. In a way, this can be seen in the way some family members go about organizing marriage for their presumed dependants, based on their own core values, without ever consulting the affected parties. For me, the real theme of the film is that this is not done out of pride, or any need to control others, but purely because none of the characters ever imagine that their own values are not universal.
This theme is played out repeatedly throughout the film. Married and unmarried women cannot stop championing to each other that their situation is better, to the point of driving a wedge between friends. A child assumes his desire for a particular toy will be taken up by all the adults around him. The family patriarch settles into his own contentment, oblivious to the fact his wife is unhappy because she is still mourning a lost child.
In the end, most of these divides between points of view are not resolved. Some get their way, others do not. But life continues, with every character still loving everyone else. It is this strong family bond that makes the film universal. My personal favourite in the Ozu universe.
Other reviewers have focused on the clash between traditional pre-war Japanese values, and the influx of modern (for 1951) values. In a way, this can be seen in the way some family members go about organizing marriage for their presumed dependants, based on their own core values, without ever consulting the affected parties. For me, the real theme of the film is that this is not done out of pride, or any need to control others, but purely because none of the characters ever imagine that their own values are not universal.
This theme is played out repeatedly throughout the film. Married and unmarried women cannot stop championing to each other that their situation is better, to the point of driving a wedge between friends. A child assumes his desire for a particular toy will be taken up by all the adults around him. The family patriarch settles into his own contentment, oblivious to the fact his wife is unhappy because she is still mourning a lost child.
In the end, most of these divides between points of view are not resolved. Some get their way, others do not. But life continues, with every character still loving everyone else. It is this strong family bond that makes the film universal. My personal favourite in the Ozu universe.