The Munekata Sisters

Yasujirō Ozu's 1950 film sets two very different sisters against each other: Setsuko, tied to traditional values and enduring an unemployed, alcoholic husband, and Mariko, modern and blunt. When Hiroshi, whom Setsuko parted from years earlier, returns from France, Mariko tries to bring them back together. It is one of the films Ozu made outside his own studio and is usually placed in the second rank; but the clash between the ways of living the two sisters defend carries the change post-war Japan was going through. The encounters between Kinuyo Tanaka and Hideko Takamine are the film's best moments. The husband's violence is its most uncomfortable element, and the film does not take as clear a position on it as one might expect. Who it's for: viewers interested in Ozu and post-war Japanese family drama. Who it's not for: anyone seeking Ozu's acknowledged masterpieces, or avoiding content involving domestic violence.