One of Naruse's best black-and-white 'scope films--which seem to recapture the feel of his pre-war films, with their expressive lighting and camera effects--Yearning is a melodrama that in Naruse's hands becomes a delicate and astute psychological portrait. The story concerns a war widow (Hideko Takamine) who struggles to keep her provincial mom-and-pop store afloat against the advent of the supermarket. Living with her in-laws, who are chief among those trying to squeeze her out of her business, she becomes the protector of her 25-year-old brother-in-law, who is given to excessive drinking and womanizing until he astonishes her with the confession that he has fallen in love with her and begins to reform. Audie Bock writes, “This film because of its theme becomes one of the best for studying Naruse's techniques of directing non-verbal communication, through glances and body languages revealing the thoughts of the would-be lovers and the hypocrisy of the family.... Pop singer Yuzo Kayama, who had been launched in films through Akira Kurosawa's 1962 Sanjuro as the leader of the do-gooder young samurai, manages to carry off this James Dean-like role of a boy who is wild because he isn't loved. Takamine performs at her best....”