Extremely subtle & gentle, with lots of understated humour, added unto & countered by a Tati-like musical score that emphasizes the melancholy wistfulness of it all, & with this very tender Father figure—Ryū!—presiding over & underpinning the whole;
Here’s the bare, simple synopsis: Dad marries off daughter & is sad …
So much more! The office/the bar/the home, & the whole society contained & comprehended in the navigating between them, a textbook on in-law relations, a droll group of old friends that constantly meets, & provides their commentary & witness; an awful lot of drinking!
Prosperity &, refreshingly, a witness to & appreciation of the generosity of the favoured, comic, poignant, insightful unto surprise insights about the War, what it is to be a widower, and of course, this being (very!) late Ozu, a sad and shimmering, mysteriously moving sense of resignation …