In woman-centered melodramas such as A Flower Never Fades and Evening Calm, Toyoda is sensitive to the double binds in the lives of unmarried mothers. In Sweet Sweat a Tokyo barmaid's teenage daughter becomes increasingly upset by her mother's constant drinking and yakuza boyfriend, and runs away from home. John Gillett: "Invariably a celebrator of romantic love (and discord), Toyoda here turns to a stark, yet compassionate, study of 'the women who live quietly in the corners of big cities.' Machiko Kyo is outstanding as the 36-year-old bar hostess who has supported her large family without help, but now feels life crowding in on her as her teenage daughter becomes discontented. Using black-and-white 'scope, Toyoda vividly fills in his heroine's background."