There Was a Father

{{Infobox film | name = There Was a Father | image = File:There Was a Father poster.jpg | caption = Film poster | director = Yasujirō Ozu | producer = | writer = Tadao Ikeda Takao Yanai Yasujirō Ozu | screenplay = | story = | based_on =  | narrator = | starring = Mitsuko Mito Chishū Ryū Haruhiko Tsuda Shin Saburi | music = Kyoichi Saiki | cinematography = Yūharu Atsuta | editing = Yoshiyasu Hamamura | studio = | distributor = Shochiku | released = {{Film date|1942|04|1}} | runtime = 94 minutes | country = Japan | language = Japanese | budget = | gross = }} {{nihongo|'''''There Was a Father'''''|父ありき|Chichi Ariki|lead=yes}} is a 1942 Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu.

==Plot summary== Shuhei Horikawa (Chishū Ryū) works as a mathematics school-teacher in a middle school. A widower, he has a ten-year-old son named Ryohei (Haruhiko Tsuda), who studies in the same school. While taking his class out for an excursion one day, one of his pupils drowns after running off with a classmate on a secret boat trip. Shuhei blames himself for the accident, and quits his teaching job out of remorse.

Shuhei enrolls his son to a junior high school in Ueda, where Ryohei studies as a boarder, and goes to work in Tokyo to finance his son's education.

Years pass. The twenty-five-year-old Ryohei (Shūji Sano) has finished college and has himself become a school-teacher in Akita. Shuhei now works as a clerk in a Tokyo textile factory and the two meet occasionally. Ryohei has thoughts of quitting his teaching job to join his father at Tokyo, but Shuhei rebukes him for not doing what his duty decrees. Ryohei takes a ten-day vacation to join his father in Tokyo. Together with retired headmaster Makoto Hirata (Takeshi Sakamoto), Shuhei attends a get-together with his former pupils and the group reminisce about their school days. When Shuhei returns home, he suffers a heart attack and is admitted to the hospital. Asking Hirata's daughter Fumiko (Mitsuko Mito) to take care of his son, he dies soon after. The final scene shows Ryohei and his new wife Fumiko returning to Akita, with the urn containing his father's ashes resting on the luggage rack; the two have agreed to live together with Hirata and Fumiko's younger brother.

==Cast== * Chishū Ryū as Shuhei * Shūji Sano as Ryohei (as an adult) * Haruhiko Tsuda as Ryohei (as a child) * Shin Saburi as Yasutaro Kurokawa * Takeshi Sakamoto as Makoto Hirata * Mitsuko Mito as Fumi * Shinichi Himori as Minoru Uchida * Kōji Mitsui as alumnus

==Production== thumb|Chishū Ryū and Haruhiko Tsuda as father and son Yasujirō Ozu wrote the first draft of ''There Was a Father'' before he went to China in 1937. On returning to Japan, he rewrote it, feeling that "it could still be improved".<ref>Richie, 1977. p.229</ref>

==Release== ''There Was a Father'' was released on April 1, 1942.<ref>Richie, 1977. p.228</ref> In 2023, scenes depicting patriotic poetry and music that had been cut from its only existing prints by occupation censors<ref name="criterion">{{cite web|url=http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1512-there-was-a-father-duty-calls|title=There Was a Father:Duty Calls|author=Rayns, Tony|accessdate=December 19, 2010|date=July 13, 2010|work=The Criterion Collection}}</ref> were restored for presentation of the film at the Venice Film Festival.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/ataglance/2666/ |title=Ozu Yasujiro's 1942 film 'There Was a Father' restored|accessdate=August 23, 2023|date=August 23, 2023|website=NHK World-Japan|publisher=NHK}}{{dead link|date=February 2026|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

==Reception== ''There Was a Father'' placed second in the Kinema Junpo's annual critics' poll of Japan's Best Ten films.<ref name="criterion" /> It currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/there_was_a_father/ |title=There Was a Father (1942) |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |accessdate=January 30, 2017}}</ref> Trevor Johnston of ''Time Out'' praised Ryu's performance, arguing that the actor's "stoic underplaying offers a heartbreaking performance for the ages."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.timeout.com/london/film/there-was-a-father |title=There Was a Father |last=Johnston |first=Trevor |magazine=Time Out |accessdate=January 30, 2017}}</ref> Richard Brody of ''The New Yorker'' wrote, "In such chilling nuances as Shuhei’s silent grief, his rigid deference to authority, his joyful anticipation of Ryohei’s military service, and Ryohei’s serene lessons on the destructive power of TNT, Ozu reveals a society heading blindly toward the abyss and destroying its future in the name of the past."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/there-was-a-father |title=There Was a Father |last=Brody |first=Richard |magazine=The New Yorker |accessdate=January 30, 2017}}</ref>

==Home media== ''There Was a Father'' was released on DVD along with Ozu's ''The Only Son'' by The Criterion Collection on July 13, 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://allmovie.com/dvd/only-sonthere-was-a-father-criterion-collection-2-discs-239899|work=Allmovie|accessdate=December 19, 2010|title=The Only Son/There Was a Father [Criterion Collection] [2 Discs]}}</ref>

In 2011, the BFI released a Region 2 Blu-ray and DVD of the film as a bonus feature on its Dual Format Edition (Blu-ray + DVD) of ''Equinox Flower''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://shop.bfi.org.uk/dvd-blu-ray.html|title=DVD & Blu-ray - Shop|website=shop.bfi.org.uk}}</ref>

In April 2024, the BFI released a Region 2 Blu-ray of the film in a package titled “Two Films by Yasujirō Ozu”. This single disc package also contains ''I_Was_Born,_But...''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Two-Films-by-YasujirA-Ozu-Blu-ray/354588/#Overview|title=Two Films by Yasujirō Ozu Blu-ray|website=www.blu-ray.com}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

===Bibliography=== *{{cite book | last= Richie | first= Donald | title= Ozu |publisher= University of California Press |year= 1977 |isbn= 0-520-03277-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8W6mwSIwTEsC |accessdate=December 19, 2010 }}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0034591}} *[https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1512-there-was-a-father-duty-calls ''There Was a Father: Duty Calls''] an essay by Tony Rayns at the Criterion Collection

Category:1942 films Category:1942 drama films Category:Japanese drama films Category:Japanese black-and-white films Category:Films set in Tokyo Category:Films directed by Yasujirō Ozu Category:Films with screenplays by Tadao Ikeda Category:Films with screenplays by Yasujirō Ozu Category:Shochiku films Category:1942 Japanese films