Description:

Musume tsuma haha - An idiosyncratic mixture of acerbic comedy, family chronicle and romance. Totally unheralded -- but if not a masterpiece, awfully close.

Mikio Naruse’s characteristically bitter story of middle-class unhappiness. It concerns an aging mother, her five grown children, and several of their spouses, nearly all of whom have money troubles. When one of the daughters is widowed, she returns to the family nest with a substantial inheritance; one by one, her siblings take advantage of her trusting personality, driving her close to bankruptcy and despair.

The many major characters can be hard to keep straight, but that only enhances the movie’s portrait of family life. With his usual quiet focus, Naruse accumulates moments of pettiness and cruelty until they become overwhelming.

Director: Mikio Naruse

Stars: Setsuko Hara, Hideko Takamine and Nakadai Tatsuya

1960 – JAPANESE with OPTIONAL ENGLISH SUBTITLES – COLOR – 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN - 123 MINUTES