Like many of Yasujirō Ozu's early films, this beautiful fragment addresses the twin themes of university education and employment by combining trenchant social commentary and slapstick comedy. Structurally elegant narrative parallels heighten the effects of the distinctive framing, and the many paradoxes of Ozu's cinema are epitomized by the rigorously composed image of actress Kinuyo Tanaka standing in a kimono before an English-language poster for a Harold Lloyd comedy. With English subtitles.