Masaki Kobayashi's classic 'jidai-geki' samurai drama is set in 17th-century Japan. Tatsuya Nakadai stars as Hanshiro Tsugumo, an aging and disenfranchised samurai warrior who enters the house of a feudal lord asking to commit the act of hara-kiri (ritual suicide) on his land according to the ancient samurai code. On arrival, Hanshiro begins to tell his tragic life story, which is played out in flashback, culminating in Hanshiro's violent revenge upon those whose hypocrisy and authoritarianism robbed him and his family of life, love and happiness.

Yasujiro Ozu directs this intimate family portrait telling the story of widowed college professor Somiya (Chishu Ryu), who must face the inevitability that his only daughter, 27-year-old Noriko (Setsuko Hara), will soon be married off. Noriko, however, sees no reason to disrupt the harmony of the family home and repeatedly insists that marriage is not for her. Yet the social pressure continues to build, and eventually Somiya tricks his daughter into marrying by informing her that he is planning to remarry himself.