La hierba errante

Stated by cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa about director Yasujirô Ozu: "I'll never forget that, from the first day on, he knew the names of everybody on the set, fifty people in the crew, people he'd never worked with. He'd written their names down, I learned later. But everyone was impressed and became devoted to him. Every single day working on this film was extremely pleasurable and enriching. In each of Ozu's films you can sniff his personality. He was pure, gentle, light-hearted, a fine individual."

Near the end, sandals disappear or move around: after Kiyoshi argues with his father, he runs upstairs, first slipping out of his sandals and leaving them at the bottom (center) of the stairs. Moments later, Kayo goes up to him. We see that she, too, removes her sandals at the bottom of the stairs. But Kiyoshi's sandals have now suddenly disappeared: we see only Kayo's sandals at the bottom of the stairs. Moments later, Kiyoshi comes back downstairs to go after his father. He goes to put on his sandals, which have now suddenly reappeared, but in a different location from where he took them off. A moment later, Kayo also comes down the stairs and puts on her sandals, which are approximately where she had removed them and placed them, moments earlier.

Featured in Siskel & Ebert Holiday Gift Guide (1989)