These rare early films from Yasujiro Ozu are considered by many to be two of the Japanese director’s finest works, paving the way for a career among the most sensitive and significant in cinema. The Only Son and There Was a Father make a graceful pair, bookending a crucial period in Japanese history. In the former, Ozu’s first sound film, made during a time of intense economic crisis, a mother sacrifices her own happiness for her son’s education; the latter, released in the midst of World War II, stars Ozu stalwart Chishu Ryu as a widowed schoolteacher whose devotion to his son ends up driving them apart. Criterion proudly presents these nearly lost treasures for the first time on home video.

Box Set: The following DVDs are included in this set:

The Only Son Spine #525

There Was a Father Spine #526

Supplements New video interviews with Japanese film scholar Tadao Sato and film scholars David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, authors of Film Art, the United States’ best-selling film studies book

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