(Tokyo no gassho). A charming social comedy on a serious theme: an office worker and family man is dismissed from his insurance-company job when he stands up for a co-worker in a trifling dispute. His family is forced to economize while he walks the streets looking for work, until his luck changes when he happens to meet an old high school teacher now managing a restaurant. "In these dark prewar films, (Ozu) was showing conditions in so faithful a manner that they indicted themselves. At the same time he was also quietly celebrating a character-a personal rather than national ideal-that could remain brave in the face of family pressure, could continue to hope in the face of an increasingly restrictive social order, could remain simple, naive, strong enough to continue to have faith in itself. From this stuff of tragedy, Ozu fashioned some of his best comedies." (Donald Richie, Ozu)