Kinoshita examines the disintegration of values amid the cultural confusion of postwar Japan in this, one of his most acclaimed films. Set in Atami (the Japanese Miami Beach), A Japanese Tragedy tells of a widow who sacrifices everything, falling into disrepute as a bar hostess, for the sake of her ungrateful children who care only for material comforts and who as adults will have nothing to do with her. The form is that of the haha-mono or "mother drama," paying tribute to the long-suffering mother; but Kinoshita subverts sentiment with harsh realism, "question(ing) the beautiful solidarity of the basic, common social body, the family, amid the adverse circumstances of postwar Japan" (Sato). He utilizes newsreel footage and newspaper headlines in dynamic montage to integrate the tragedy of this mother-who is totally ignorant of politics or history-into a larger historical perspective. Formally, the film makes innovative use of flashbacks, giving its tragic climax extraordinary force.