There Was a Father (1942)

Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects.

Director:

Yasujirô Ozu

Writers:

Tadao Ikeda, Yasujirô Ozu

Stars:

Chishû Ryû, Shûji Sano, Shin Saburi

Cast

Credited cast:
Chishû Ryû	...	Shuhei Horikawa
Shûji Sano	...	Ryohei Horikawa
Shin Saburi	...	Yasutaro Kurokawa
Takeshi Sakamoto	...	Makoto Hirata
Mitsuko Mito	...	Fumiko Hirata
Masayoshi Ôtsuka	...	Seiichi Hirata
Shin'ichi Himori	...	Minoru Uchida
Haruhiko Tsuda	...	Ryohei as a child
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shôtarô Fujimatsu
Chiyoko Fumiya
Masao Hayama
Kanji Kawahara	...	Teacher of junior high school
Teruo Kisaragi
Shôichi Kofujita	...	(as Shôichi Kotôda)
Masami Kubota

Storyline

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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Plot Keywords:

teacher student relationship | crying | train | dignity | duty | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

November 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

There Was a Father

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shochiku

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in I Lived, But... (1983)

User Reviews

Ozu did it again!

Another simple story perfectly made and portrayed by Ozu. This time it is about the relationship between father and son and how they had to separate from each other throughout their lives.

I think this has been the slowest paced film from his earlier films I've seen so far, though I'm not really sure. The camera sometimes shows or focuses on places (for instance the shot in the building where the father works) and prolongs itself into them. Those takes might not add anything to the plot, but they surely give a more vivid feel to the film.

The film is really worth watching for all lovers of Japanese cinema; it is also the one I've liked the most from Ozu's earlier films. Needless to say, and as I've been mentioning in the other reviews, if you're not into Ozu's filmmaking style, then you shouldn't bother checking this out.