"Based on an archetypal Japanese character who eats and drinks away his family fortune, Mr. Ohara is a small-time farmer who loses his land in the postwar agricultural reform. He takes leisurely baths, gives away all his assets, and, on the day he loses everything, is burgled...Shimizu's affectionate portrait includes a vivid panorama of village intrigue with much witty detail of life within the old house and its environs. Veteran star Denjiro Okochi makes an expansive Mr. Ohara, resilient to the end." (John Gillett) "It's one of Shimizu's richest comedies, in which Mr. Ohara is pitched (Groucho versus Dumont) against the awful village benefactress, Mrs. Maragret Nakata, who wants to Westernize the environment and turn all the local lasses into seamstresses..." (Alan Stanbrook)