This moving film, about the force of familial obligations in an authoritarian, patriarchal household during the Taisho period, is one of Ichikawa's personal favorites, and possibly his greatest success in Japan. Kinuyo Tanaka portrays a cold-hearted, invalid Christian woman who manipulates her stepdaughter into the role of servant and surrogate mother to her troubled, spoiled brother. The girl enters womanhood exhausted, lacking both the energy and the desire to assume a life of her own. The story is made all the more powerful by the muted color cinematography of Kazuo Miyagawa. Japanese audiences loved the film for its nostalgic view of a woman's steadfast devotion, but Joan Mellon, in The Waves at Genji's Door, takes a more skeptical look at Ichikawa's message: "Ichikawa demystifies the idea that the patriarchal family accords the individual protection in exchange for his loyalty and subservience, as Ozu would have us believe."