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Finer sensibilities have rarely found their way to the big silver than those on display in Yasujiro Ozu's 1949 classic. Widower professor Somiya (Chishu Ryu) isn't getting any younger, and neither is his late-twentysomething daughter Noriko (Setsuko Hara). She has devoted her life so far to taking care of him, but first her Aunt Masa (Haruko Sugimura) and then the professor himself come to believe that it's best that she marry and begin her own family. How can they convince her to leave her happy life with her father for a life with a husband she says she doesn't want? The low-key machinations and tiny revelations that ensue devastate. Hara's performance is a model of surpassing subtlety--she seems to have at least a dozen smiles, many of them not happy at all--and Ozu compliments it at every turn with his deceptive gentleness and perfect framing.

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