Good Morning

Ozu's informal '50s-set remake of "I Was Born, But . . . ." Not as lyrical as its model, but just as penetrating, this one, made in bright colors and flat surfaces that suggest the era's television dramas, has another obstreperous brother-combo who stage gas-expelling contests and wage a war to get, coincidentally, a family TV. [25 Nov 2005, p.C4]

This profound film reveals that nothing is below the purview of existential contemplation, even all matters of flatulence, and words as simple as “Good morning” are revealed to contain fathomless multitudes. Read full review

Devoted to both the profound necessity and the sublime silliness of gratuitous social interchange, OHAYO is a rather subtler and grander work than might appear at first. Read full review

A knowing comedy, Good Morning isn't one of Ozu's indisputable masterpieces, but it serves as a fine example of everything he does well. Read full review

Ozu spins a social and emotional tapestry from a 1950s Tokyo suburb in which two young brothers, desperate for their own TV set, take a vow of silence in protest against the frivolous speech of adult society. Read full review

Ozu makes silence his very subject. In warm and humorous scenes, it emerges as the abyss of the generation gap; but here, Ozu stands his own ironic inversions on their head. Read full review

A brimming sense of life, in other words, gradually transforms the small talk into a richly devious portrait of humanity being human. Read full review

Good Morning is thoroughly enjoyable comedy that, somewhat atypically for director Yasujiro Ozu, is sunny throughout, without the darkness or sense of melancholy that rests under the surface of most of this gentle director's work. Read full review

Full of humanity, humour and moments of pathos. [08 Jul 2012, p.45]