Chishū Ryū

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Chishū Ryū, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara

After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his old life, he faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his men sneak behind enemy lines.

Dir. Masaki Kobayashi · With Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Tamao Nakamura

Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.

Dir. Akira Kurosawa · With Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baisho, Toshie Negishi

Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Chishū Ryū, Setsuko Hara, Yumeji Tsukioka

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Chishū Ryū, Shima Iwashita, Keiji Sada

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Keiji Sada, Yoshiko Kuga, Chishū Ryū

In postwar Tokyo, Noriko lives with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her social life, her more traditional family worries about her single marital status at the advanced age of 28. 40-year-old business associate Takako proposes, Noriko's family press her into accepting, but when her widowed childhood friend Kenkichi returns to the neighborhood, she finds her heart leading in another direction.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Setsuko Hara, Chishū Ryū, Chikage Awashima

A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Setsuko Hara, Yōko Tsukasa, Mariko Okada

Wataru's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares her love for a coworker and is adamant to live her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Shin Saburi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ineko Arima

Two sisters learn about the existence of their long-lost biological mother, but the younger is unable to accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishū Ryū

A theater troupe master's visit with his old flame unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Ganjirō Nakamura II, Machiko Kyō, Ayako Wakao

The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure, Koji Tsuruta

A rural widow sends her only son to Tokyo to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him and finds he has become a night school teacher struggling to support his wife and son.

Dir. Yasujirō Ozu · With Chōko Iida, Shinichi Himori, Masao Hayama

German director Wim Wenders tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu and finds a very different city.

Dir. Wim Wenders · With Chishū Ryū, Yûharu Atsuta, Werner Herzog