Two sisters come to Kyoto from Tokyo to visit their dying father. Setsuko (Kinuyo Tanaka), the older and more traditional of the two, is resigned to her life as the hostess of a bar which she has opened to support herself and her perpetually unemployed husband. The younger sister, Mariko (Hideko Takamine), is an audacious postwar free-thinker. When a third visitor, Hiroshi, turns out to have been in love with Setsuko before the war, Mariko tries to pry her sister away from her husband and re-unite the two. In the end, duty to father determines the course of both sisters' lives. David Owens of the Japan Society writes, "This melodramatic story suffers from too schematic a division between tradition and modernity... prewar and postwar Japan.... But Takamine creates a good, strong character.... And many of the set pieces are very well played and very atmospheric in the best Ozu manner." The Munekata Sisters represents Ozu's first departure from Shochiku studios in response to a lucrative offer from Shintoho. But the agreement involved the use of the studio's story and actors, and, as Ozu has commented, "To be frank, I find it difficult to make a film out of a novel... (and) select someone to play a role already created. When I write, I always write with an actor in mind from the beginning, and this helps create the role in the film."