"This beautifully observed film is among Ozu's most realistic. Indeed, the term neo-realismo has been used to describe Ozu's establishing scenes of the effects of the Great Depression in Tokyo" (Donald Richie). It tells of an unemployed factory worker who takes to the road with his two sons after he is abandoned by his wife. They find companionship with an equally destitute widow and her daughter. "The towering, distant factories, tenderly blowing smoke, the weedy vacant fields and potholed roads lined with telephone poles and trolley lines, the energy and beauty of children, and the caring faces of destitute parents are rendered in Ozu's most mature photographic style. A great poem of light and courage in the industrial revolution, a song of our earth. The magic of Ozu's totally cinematic vision is seen here, almost for the first time, in full bloom." (Nathaniel Dorsky)