# There Was a Father (父ありき)
**There Was a Father** (父ありき, *Chichi ariki*) is a 1942 Japanese drama directed by Yasujiro Ozu, produced by Shochiku at its Ofuna studio, and released on April 1, 1942[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/). It follows a widowed schoolteacher, Shuhei Horikawa, who resigns after a fatal accident on a school trip and then lives apart from his son Ryohei for years while working to pay for the boy's education[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/22839-there-was-a-father). According to Senses of Cinema, it was one of two films Ozu made during the war, alongside [Brothers and Sisters](https://www.edgepedia.org/brothers-and-sisters) of the Toda Family (1941), and Shochiku's own database calls it one summit of his work, and it won an award from the government's Information Bureau as a national policy film, yet it is read today as a tragic family story beneath its patriotic surface[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/) • [3](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003079033) • [18](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/ozu/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | April 1, 1942; Shochiku (Ofuna); black and white sound film, distributed by Eiga Haikyu Sha[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/) • [4](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=25256&mode=1) |
| Director and script | Directed by Yasujiro Ozu; screenplay by Ozu, Tadao Ikeda, and Takao Yanai; cinematography by Yuharu Atsuta[5](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/341) |
| Lead cast | Chishu Ryu as Shuhei Horikawa; Shuji Sano as the adult Ryohei; Haruhiko Tsuda as Ryohei as a boy; with Shin Saburi, Takeshi Sakamoto, and Mitsuko Mito[5](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/341) |
| Runtime | 94 minutes per Shochiku's database; 87 minutes per Criterion, Musashino Art University, and other catalogs[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/22839-there-was-a-father) • [5](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/341) |
| Recognition | 2nd place in Kinema Junpo's 1942 Best Ten; 2nd in the Japan Film Magazine Writers' Association poll; Intelligence Bureau (national policy film) award[6](https://www.bunkido.co.jp/archives/4929) • [7](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1942_n.html) • [3](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003079033) |
| Restoration | A 2023 joint restoration by the National Film Archive of Japan and Shochiku recovered the version closest to the original release, premiered at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival[8](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/NFAJ-Annual-Report_2023.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Story
Shuhei Horikawa, a middle school teacher in Kanazawa, has raised his son Ryohei alone since his wife's death. When a student dies in an accident during a school trip at Hakone and Lake Ashi, Shuhei takes responsibility and resigns, returns with the boy to his home region of Ueda in [Nagano Prefecture](https://www.edgepedia.org/nagano-prefecture), and takes work at a local government office[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/) • [7](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1942_n.html). When Ryohei enters middle school and moves into a boarding school dormitory, Shuhei moves to Tokyo alone to earn enough to fund his son's further education[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/).
The story then jumps forward. Ryohei, now played by Shuji Sano, has graduated from university, followed his father into teaching, and taken a post in Akita. Shuhei suggests that Ryohei marry Fumi, the daughter of his former Kanazawa colleague Hirata, and Ryohei, shyly, leaves the matter to his father. Days later Shuhei collapses and dies suddenly, and Ryohei and Fumi travel to Akita together[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/). The film's ending shows the young couple on the train with Shuhei's ashes in an urn on the luggage rack[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1512-there-was-a-father-duty-calls).
The father and son never again live together as a family. Ryohei wants to quit his difficult teaching job and join his father, but Shuhei refuses, insisting that happiness is possible only through the pain of work[10](https://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/events/ozu-film-series-hfa-there-was-father-0). Repeated scenes of the two fishing together underline the bond that separation keeps testing[1](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/).
## Production and wartime context
The script was first written in early 1937, soon after the release of Ozu's *[The Only Son](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-only-son)* (1936) and just before Ozu was drafted, and it was rewritten several times after his military service in China before filming[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1512-there-was-a-father-duty-calls) • [10](https://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/events/ozu-film-series-hfa-there-was-father-0). The two films share marked correspondences, from parent-child separation to classroom scenes of geometry lessons, but where *The Only Son* follows a mother urging her son toward ambition, *There Was a Father* reverses the plea: the father urges acceptance of one's appointed job, however lowly, because "a man has to serve his country"[11](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/a%20family%20affair%3Cbr%3E%20the%20films%20of%20yasujiro%20ozu/2023/09/11/there-was-a-father/).
The film was produced as part of the Information Bureau's national film planning during the war. Ozu presented the father Horikawa as a model, ideal Japanese figure embodying the spirit the imperial state wanted, and the film won the Intelligence Bureau Award; most contemporary critics judged it an appropriate national film despite flaws[3](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003079033). Its themes of sacrifice were deemed appropriately patriotic by Japanese censors, which makes it a distinctly political film within Ozu's body of work[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/22839-there-was-a-father). Scholars have noted, however, that the melancholy of a son who cannot restore a peaceful home with his father contradicts the nature of a national-policy film, and that Ozu maintained his own artistic perspective, choosing to keep making family films even during the war[3](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003079033). Ozu's personal feelings about [Japanese militarism](https://www.edgepedia.org/japanese-militarism) in the 1930s and 1940s are not on record[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1512-there-was-a-father-duty-calls).
## Reception
The film was both a critical and a commercial success[12](https://www.tcm.com/articles/196969/there-was-a-father). It placed 2nd in Kinema Junpo's 1942 Best Ten[6](https://www.bunkido.co.jp/archives/4929) and 2nd in the Japan Film Magazine Writers' Association poll[7](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1942_n.html). The Harvard Film Archive's screening notes describe it as a Kinema Junpo first prize winner[10](https://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/events/ozu-film-series-hfa-there-was-father-0), a ranking that differs from BUNKIDO's record of 2nd place; both accounts agree on its standing among the year's films. A 2024 study of the postwar discussion around the film examines how its wartime reception and later controversy diverged[13](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003109292).
## Style
*There Was a Father* was only Ozu's fourth sound film, as he resisted the transition to sound longer than many fellow directors, and it was the first film to bring together all the defining elements of his mature style, including his famed "pillow shots," still-life scenes of the world around the characters that act as visual cushions between scenes[12](https://www.tcm.com/articles/196969/there-was-a-father). A statistical study of Ozu's editing found that only five of his films have an average shot length above 10 seconds, and the longest of these is *There Was a Father* at 14.8 seconds[14](https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/repo/huscap/all/79904/rjgshhs_19_all.pdf).
The film's quietness carries its meaning. Father and son sit on a hilltop in silence after Shuhei announces his move to Tokyo, or fish wordlessly in a stream, their poles arcing in unison; their peace in one another's company merges with the surrounding world[12](https://www.tcm.com/articles/196969/there-was-a-father). At the same time, Ozu's empty spaces and shots of the two seated at a distance under harsh lights convey a painful loneliness[10](https://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/events/ozu-film-series-hfa-there-was-father-0). A book chapter by Daisuke Miyao, a scholar of Japanese cinema, treats the film's lighting and cinematography as an internal challenge to the kabuki-style lighting dominant at Shochiku during the black-and-white period, complicating the usual image of Ozu as a consistent user of high-key lighting[15](https://academic.oup.com/book/10060/chapter-abstract/157504375).
## Autobiographical and personal resonance
During his adolescence, Ozu lived away from his father, who remained in Tokyo, while he and his brothers and sisters were brought up by their mother in Matsuzaka, a town close to Nagoya. The film's plot, in which a father leaves his son in a boarding school in Ueda while he moves to Tokyo to earn money for the boy's education, therefore has autobiographical resonance, though the young Ozu was far less dutiful than Ryohei, playing hooky at cinemas and eventually being expelled from his school dormitory[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1512-there-was-a-father-duty-calls) • [16](https://edinburghfilmguild.org.uk/2011-12/There%20was%20a%20Father.pdf).
The film also marked the first appearance of Chishu Ryu in an Ozu film; Ryu went on to become the director's indispensable leading actor, and this is widely acknowledged as the first great performance he gave in an Ozu film[6](https://www.bunkido.co.jp/archives/4929) • [11](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/a%20family%20affair%3Cbr%3E%20the%20films%20of%20yasujiro%20ozu/2023/09/11/there-was-a-father/).
## Censorship and restoration
When *There Was a Father* was re-released during the Allied Occupation, censorship cut scenes with strong military coloring, shortening the film by an estimated 7 minutes[8](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/NFAJ-Annual-Report_2023.pdf) • [7](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1942_n.html). In 2023 the National Film Archive of Japan and Shochiku jointly restored the film by combining Shochiku's 16mm master positive with a 35mm print held by the archive that appears to be a prewar release version, recovering the version closest to the original release. The restoration was screened at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival and later streamed online[8](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/NFAJ-Annual-Report_2023.pdf).
## Place in Ozu's work
The film stands at a turning point between Ozu's early comedies and the postwar domestic dramas such as *Late Spring* (1949) and *Tokyo Story* (1953) for which he is best known[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/22839-there-was-a-father). Its ending, with Ryohei and his bride traveling to Akita carrying his father's ashes, has been compared with the ending of *Tokyo Story*, in which Noriko returns to Tokyo by train contemplating life's disappointments[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1512-there-was-a-father-duty-calls). Across both periods Ozu returned to the same situation: parents and children who love each other but choose, or are forced to choose, separate lives[17](https://www.lib.kyutech.ac.jp/libi/cinetech/review53.html).
## References
1. [作品データベース「父ありき」, Shochiku](https://www.shochiku.co.jp/cinema/database/02332/)
2. [There Was a Father (1942), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/22839-there-was-a-father)
3. [A Study on There Was a Father (1942) as a Family Film during the Wartime Period, Koo Hyewon, Cineforum 47 (2024)](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003079033)
4. [国立映画アーカイブ所蔵映画フィルム検索システム「父ありき」](https://nfad.nfaj.go.jp/det.php?data_id=25256&mode=1)
5. [父ありき, Musashino Art University Image Library database](https://img-lib.musabi.ac.jp/search/index.php/document/detail-work/341)
6. [父ありき(1942), BUNKIDO](https://www.bunkido.co.jp/archives/4929)
7. [日本映画レビュー 1942年「父ありき」](https://nanaelibrary.jpn.org/movie/nihon/1942_n.html)
8. [NFAJ Annual Report 2023: Preservation / Restoration](https://www.nfaj.go.jp/wp-content/uploads/NFAJ-Annual-Report_2023.pdf)
9. [There Was a Father: Duty Calls, Tony Rayns, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1512-there-was-a-father-duty-calls)
10. [Ozu Film Series at HFA: There Was a Father, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University](https://rijs.fas.harvard.edu/events/ozu-film-series-hfa-there-was-father-0)
11. [There Was a Father, BFI Southbank programme notes (David Bordwell, Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema)](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/a%20family%20affair%3Cbr%3E%20the%20films%20of%20yasujiro%20ozu/2023/09/11/there-was-a-father/)
12. [There Was a Father, Sean Axmaker, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/196969/there-was-a-father)
13. [Ozu Yasujiro in a Time of Total War: Focus on controversy over There Was a Father, Taewoong Kang, Cineforum 48 (2024)](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003109292)
14. [Study of Ozu's average shot lengths, Hokkaido University repository](https://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/repo/huscap/all/79904/rjgshhs_19_all.pdf)
15. [Ozu and the Aesthetics of Shadow: Lighting and Cinematography in There Was a Father (1942), Daisuke Miyao, in Reorienting Ozu, Oxford University Press](https://academic.oup.com/book/10060/chapter-abstract/157504375)
16. [There was a Father, Edinburgh Film Guild programme notes](https://edinburghfilmguild.org.uk/2011-12/There%20was%20a%20Father.pdf)
17. [CineTech 第53回紹介作品, Kyushu Institute of Technology Library](https://www.lib.kyutech.ac.jp/libi/cinetech/review53.html)
18. [Ozu, Yasujiro, Senses of Cinema](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/ozu/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1940s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license