"Yasujiro Ozu has been called 'the most Japanese of Japanese filmmakers.' Viewers unfamiliar with his films may suffer from the hardship of trying to glean from film notes just what it is that makes their screening so eventful. But accordingly his films are what they are, the cinema of the ineffable, celebrating and solemnizing every single conciliatory gesture with which individuals negotiate their lots in life. "At the age of 27, Noriko, the oldest daughter in the family, dutifully and happily goes about her business, working in the offices of a large modern firm in Kamakura, mixing with her girlfriends and listening with the appropriate expressions to the woes and glad news of family and friends. But the family collectively decides that it's time to shake up the household, marrying off Noriko for starts. Quickly enough all the members of the household are hopping to the task, discreetly and with all the propriety they can summon in the jumble of old-new Japanese standards." -Kathleen Sherrill