Ozu's control over the most sensitive and potentially overwhelming emotional material is at its height in this exquisite film about a widowed father and his son who are separated when the father must relocate and the boy is sent to boarding school. Their moments of happiness together carry the shadow of impending loss. The film was one of Ozu's personal favorites, perhaps because of the plot's similarity to his own situation: while Ozu grew up in the small town of Matsuzaka near Nagoya, his father carried on the family business in Tokyo. The theme of separation was particularly poignant for Japanese audiences at a time when so many families were fractured by the hardships of the war.