Manbei Kohayagawa runs a brewery on the verge of bankruptcy. Lately, the old man finds comfort with his former mistress, to the dismay of his three daughters—Akika, a widow and a mother; Fumiko, whose husband tries to save the brewery; and Noriko, who refuses to marry the man chosen by his family.

Yasujirō Ozu’s penultimate film and last collaboration with the luminous Setsuko Hara has a poignant sense of life’s endings. Flecked with comic touches and pastel colors, this story of two interconnected families in a final moment of flux is as moving as the Japanese auteur’s most famous films.