“Naruse launched the shomin-geki revival with his 1951 Repast (Meshi).... The film was about a poor white-collar worker, the average Japanese ‘salary-man,' and his wife who after a few years of married life decide to break up because they just cannot make a go of it. They finally understand, however, that at least they are not alone in their plight, that things are not so bad as all that, and that love and enjoyment can come from the simple things in life. This film proved one of the most perfect expressions of the perennial Japanese shikata ga nai, ‘it can't be helped,' philosophy. It also differed somewhat in feeling from the typical shomin-geki.... In the Naruse films, although things appear quiet and commonplace, one false move (ever so dangerous because Naruse's characters are moved by instinct) would bring disaster.... Naruse has said: ‘These pictures have little that happens in them and end without a conclusion - just like life.'.... His characters are so tied to their motionless environment and are so completely at the mercy of circumstance that they seem to negate the very concept of free will....” --Joseph L. Anderson & Donald Richie, “The Japanese Film”