Salaryman Ryūhei is suddenly fired from his job. He hides the news from his family, but his lie soon unravels the bonds that hold his family together. His youngest son begins taking secret piano lessons, his oldest son wants to join the US military, and his wife becomes dissatisfied as a matriarch.

If any movie changed the perception that Kiyoshi Kurosawa only excelled at horror films, this is it: a domestic drama—the hallowed realm of Ozu—but reinvented. A prizewinner at Cannes, he scored his biggest hit yet with an unusual blend of redemptive family story, dystopian dread, and deadpan humor.