Wife! Be Like a Rose! was the first Japanese talking picture to be shown in New York (under the title Kimiko), and for years it remained one of a handful of important pre-War Japanese films even remotely accessible in the West. A bittersweet comedy within the shomin-geki genre (intimate films about everyday domestic problems) in which Naruse, like Ozu, specialized, the story concerns the efforts of a young office girl to bring her estranged parents back together. She finds her father, who long ago deserted the family to live with an ex-geisha, content and well-loved by his commonlaw wife and children. In this light film (featuring Naruse's wife Sachiko Chiba as the witty young woman), Naruse utilizes a deceptively simple style to unfold a complex message concerning the stifling nature of family life, and the many viable ways that people find to make it liveable.