Good Morning
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77% Critic Match

Good Morning

Important things are hard to say.

7.7 / 10 1959 1h 34mNR Japanese
ComedyFamilyDrama

Storyline

A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of inter­generational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.

Cast & Crew

Keiji Sada

Keiji Sada

Heiichiro Fukui

Lead
Yoshiko Kuga

Yoshiko Kuga

Setsuko Arita

Chishū Ryū

Chishū Ryū

Keitaro Hayashi

Kuniko Miyake

Kuniko Miyake

Tamiko Hayashi

Haruko Sugimura

Haruko Sugimura

Kikue Haraguchi

Kōji Shitara

Kōji Shitara

Minoru Hayashi

Masahiko Shimazu

Masahiko Shimazu

Isamu Hayashi

Kyōko Izumi

Kyōko Izumi

Midori Maruyama

What People Are Saying

4.0
A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Yasujirō Ozu's vision lands with breathtaking precision.
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
4.0
Every frame feels alive. Good Morning is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker