Trivia

Release date: November 3, 1953

The film was inspired by Make way for tomorrow (1937) directed by Leo McCarey. Ozu never saw the film, but his scriptwriter had fond memories of it. Source / More (Book)

The class of children at the end of the movie sing Japanese words to a Stephen Foster tune (1826-1864). Source / More (Book)

Director Ozu’s camera is most often positioned to catch actor-eye-level while seated on the floor (The Ozu shot). For this reason, nearly all of his sets had to be constructed with ceilings. Source / More (Book)

Chishu Ryu, who plays Shukichi, appeared in all but two of Ozu’s films. Source / More (Book)

Every sequence, every shot within it, and every detail (whether of decor or gesture) within every shot, was planned by director Ozu. Chishu Ryu: “So that all we actors had to do was to follow directions, from the way we lifted and dropped our arms to the way we blinked our eyes. That is we hadn’t to worry about acting at all” Source / More (Book)

Bibliography

Bio