Review of There Was a Father (1942) by James-Masaki R — 15 Aug 2010

Ozu'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.