Do people really see this as a simple parable about father’s sacrifice for his child, rather than an incisive examination of the social pressures underpinning tradition?
This film feels like so much more than the sanitised interpretations I commonly see which centre the father’s story at the expense of the sorrow and angst Noriko feels facing an uncertain future she has not chosen.
Perhaps these sanitised interpretations occur because the changes Ozu made to hoodwink the post-war censors still work on modern audiences.
also lowkey; the saddest scene in this isn't the apple peeling, but the scene right before she gets married
