The Only Son (1936)

Highly Recommended

Japan

Feature Film
Original Title: ひとり息子
Director: Ozu Yasujirō
Writers: Ozu Yasujirō, Arata Masao, Ikeda Tadao
Cinematographer: Sugimoto Shojiro
Composer: Itō Senji
Cast: Iida Chouko, Himori Shinichi, Hayama Masao, Tsubouchi Yoshiko, Yoshikawa Mitsuko, Ryū Chishū

An ageing woman (the outstanding Iida) goes to Tokyo to visit her only son (the doleful Himori), bringing with her great expectations, in this, Ozu’s first sound film, an exquisitely beautiful and achingly moving examination of nobility, sacrifice, disappointment, and broken dreams, which boasts one of cinema’s most devastating final scenes. Iain.Stott