The Only Son

Name: Hitori musuko
Genre: Drama
Released: 1987-04-01
Duration: 1 h 27 min
Rating: 7.8
Cast: Chôko Iida, Shin'ichi Himori, Masao Hayama

Original title: Hitori musuko

19361936
Not RatedNot Rated
1h 27m

7.8/10

3.5K

Drama

A widow sends her only son away to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him, finding him a poor school teacher with a wife and son.A widow sends her only son away to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him, finding him a poor school teacher with a wife and son.A widow sends her only son away to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him, finding him a poor school teacher with a wife and son.

7.8/10

3.5K

Director
- Yasujirô Ozu
Writers
- Yasujirô Ozu(short story)
- Tadao Ikeda(adaptation)
- Masao Arata(adaptation)
Stars

Top credits

See production, box office & company info

See more at IMDbPro

Photos24

Masao Hayama and Chôko Iida in Hitori musuko (1936)

Yoshiko Tsubouchi in Hitori musuko (1936)

Mitsuko Yoshikawa in Hitori musuko (1936)

Shin'ichi Himori in Hitori musuko (1936)

Shin'ichi Himori and Chôko Iida in Hitori musuko (1936)

Shin'ichi Himori, Chôko Iida, and Chishû Ryû in Hitori musuko (1936)

In 1923, in the province of Shinshu, the widow and simple worker of a silk factory Tsune Nonomiya (O-Tsune) decides to send her only son to Tokyo for having a better education. Thirteen years later, she visits her son Ryosuke Nonomiya (Shinichi Himori), and finds that he is a poor and frustrated night-school teacher with a wife, Sugiko (Yoshiko Tsubouchi), and a baby boy. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

self sacrifice motherly love shinshu japan taxi school 22 more

Genre
- Drama
Certificate
- Not Rated
Parents guide
- Add content advisory

Trivia
This was Yasujirô Ozu's first feature film with all-synchronous dialogue.

Connections
Featured in A Train Arrives at the Station (2016)

Soundtracks
Old Black Joe
Written by Stephen Foster

Top review

10/10

Yet another early Ozu masterpiece

This film starkly depicts both rural and urban poverty in depression-era Japan. It examines the impact that the national delusion that "education will allow everyone to get ahead" had on the lives of ordinary people. He shows that, in reality, people found that getting an education got them "nowhere". The film does not deal with abstractions, but real people, who face individualized dilemmas. The performances are exceptional, especially that of Choko Iida -- as a mother who gives up everything to let her only son pursue higher education -- only to find that her son is mired in near-poverty, instead of being a big success in Tokyo.

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