"Woman of Tokyo was the moment when Ozu became Ozu; when the egg cracked. Form and content synchronized. Photography was not of but was..." (Nathaniel Dorsky). Amazing, or perhaps not, that it should have happened with a "quickie," short both in length (forty-seven minutes) and in its making (eight days). The story involves a young woman who works two jobs to support herself and put her younger brother through college. When the boy finds that his sister has prostituted herself for his sake, tragedy ensues. Reminiscent, in its theme of women's sacrifice, of the social-realist films that Mizoguchi began making at this time, still it has at least one diversion from the tragedy (a clip from a Lubitsch film). After its premiere revival in New York, J. Hoberman (Village Voice) included Woman of Tokyo among the ten best films of 1982, calling it "a subtle riot of discordant formal devices....The crucial scene is dominated by a giant close-up of a teapot, and the ending is a breathtaking wrench of perspective from individual tragedy to matter-of-fact social breakdown. Ozu never made another film like this one, and neither has anyone else."