"In 1957, Kinoshita took great delight in showing...the narrow restrictions of adult society...in the shomin-geki (middle-class) comedy Candle in the Wind, which was about a thoroughly revolting middle-class suburban family and what happened when they won a lot of money. Some young thugs, bedraggled remnants of the taiyozoku (juvenile delinquency films), set out to burgle the happy prize-winners but, though they hang around all day long, never get the chance. Friends and relatives have gotten there first and already begun the work of depredation. Toward the end of the film, the family is so upset that there is nothing to do but weep, and this they do in a delicious parody of the endless crying scenes in the usual Shochiku family-film." Anderson and Richie, The Japanese Film