There Was a Father
There Was a Father

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- 76/100 based on 2,984 votes

A father and his son, a son and his father. Horikawa is a widower, a teacher, and a good father to Ryohei, who's about 10. After a tragedy, Horikawa resigns from teaching and takes Ryohei from Tokyo to the town of Ueno, enrolling him in junior high; to the lad's sorrow, he will be a boarder. Horikawa returns to work in Tokyo, their separation is complete. Jump ahead more than ten years: with dad's help, Ryohei has finished college and has a teaching job in Akita. Horikawa con... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in There Was a Father:

Chishū Ryū
Shūji Sano
Haruhiko Tsuda
Shin Saburi
Takeshi Sakamoto
Mitsuko Mito

Full Plot Details

A father and his son, a son and his father. Horikawa is a widower, a teacher, and a good father to Ryohei, who's about 10. After a tragedy, Horikawa resigns from teaching and takes Ryohei from Tokyo to the town of Ueno, enrolling him in junior high; to the lad's sorrow, he will be a boarder. Horikawa returns to work in Tokyo, their separation is complete. Jump ahead more than ten years: with dad's help, Ryohei has finished college and has a teaching job in Akita. Horikawa considers living with his son, which Ryohei wants, but the elder's notions of duty and hard work preclude it. Ryohei arranges a ten-day vacation with his father. Heartbreak comes quietly, nearly hidden by dignity.

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Movie Reviews

New Yorker - 9/10 by Richard BrodyWithin the framework of the aching melodrama the director daringly highlights the weight of tradition and duty that crushes the individual spirit.
Combustible Celluloid - 6/10 by Jeffrey M. AndersonAn almost unwittingly political, (unusual for Ozu) as well as artistic, triumph.
User Review - 10/10 by Masaya KA spinning factory, a hospital room that held up to the knees of Shin Saburi, and an inn that caught up to the room facing the next room in front. It is the supreme beauty of the vertical composition made possible by standard size. Shuji Sano's back looking up, a fishing rod that can be repeatedly thrown in regular order, ... It is a masterpiece of a movie, which is doing what it can do like a line of Syukichi's speech. To do as much as you can do is not a common thing. When you see the connection through the sound added from the outside of the screen and the landscape like the still picture to be inserted, it is strongly noticeable that the movie is completed with stunning omissions. In the scene where Shuji Sano sang Der Kongreß tanzt's Das gibt's nur einmal, Tishu Ryu's intense seizure scene, Mitsuko Mito cried suddenly, I was stuffy.
User Review - 8/10 by Arnaud vIndeed a very recognizable Ozu film. For me it is not his most captivating, but Ozu's craftmanship is in itself the reason to see this film.
User Review - 8/10 by Private UIt grows on me. So personal, so moving, so simple, yet so beautiful. Absolute achievement in film history.
User Review - 8/10 by Ralph RIndeed a very recognizable Ozu film. For me it is not his most captivating, but Ozu's craftmanship is in itself the reason to see this film.
User Review - 8/10 by Pavandeep SI have nothing against the propaganda elements in here, film is ultimately one of the finer forms of agitprop invented, a disassembling of the greater kind, but consider that when you hit the scene where the father starts to lambast the son for his weak-willed and utterly emotional decision and you know something is wrong. Ozu has a canny way of capturing moments and that one stuck out like a sore foot that was rarely seen in his other films. But it was very engaging, one of his more engaging in fact, at least for me.
User Review - 8/10 by James-Masaki ROzu's second and last film made during the war is a melancholy affair, with the great Chishu Ryu as a widower who moves to Tokyo to take a thankless job so his son can afford a higher education, and thirteen years later, when the son comes to visit, the old man gets sick. This notion of the sacrifice of the father (and honoring the father) is an appeasing concept for a Japan that was suddenly and brutally losing it's fathers and sons by the hundreds every day, but Ozu is certainly less concerned with thinly veiled patriotism than he is with his usual hangups, namely, the divide between generations, the dissolution of the family (whether intentional or sacrificial), and an underlying sense of regret. A companion piece, of sorts, to "The Only Son", though as is the case with Ozu from here out, poverty is no longer the harbinger of troubles, but tradition and a natural societal evolution towards a better future, which can oppose mightily.
User Review - 8/10 by Jack Ggood little father-son melodrama, but just a fair warning the Criterion transfer is one of their WORST yet (albeit I hear prints from early 40's Japanese movies in general suck no matter how much you try to restore them). It's moreso the audio than the video; if you're one those few looking to just watch the film without subtitles, you'll have a tough time.
User Review - 8/10 by Gabriel DOzu's subtle, deft touch is on display in this war-time released movie about patriachal duty with a whole lot of simmering emotional anguish.

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