“Downsized from his company, Ryuhei Sasaki still leaves home each day pretending to go to work. Ryuhei’s wife attempts to keep the family from unraveling, but a series of events accelerates their transit to an inevitable, destructive destination. Though the darkly comic and deeply unsettling tone recalls Kurosawa’s previous works, the sharply observed crevices in the seemingly ordinary family are in a sense more chilling than any of his dread-inspiring ghosts” (Taro Goto, SFIAAFF 2009). “Ashizawa’s elegant long shots toy with the meticulous framings of Ozu as Kurosawa guides the film through a series of increasingly audacious tonal shifts” (Film Society of Lincoln Center).