Japan Synopsis
お早よう
A lighthearted take on director Yasujiro Ozu’s perennial theme of the challenges of intergenerational relationships, Good Morning tells the story of two young boys who stop speaking in protest after their parents refuse to buy a television set. Ozu weaves a wealth of subtle gags through a family portrait as rich as those of his dramatic films, mocking the foibles of the adult world through the eyes of his child protagonists. Shot in stunning color and set in a suburb of Tokyo where housewives gossip about the neighbors’ new washing machine and unemployed husbands look for work as door-to-door salesmen, this charming comedy refashions Ozu’s own silent classic I Was Born, But . . . to gently satirize consumerism in postwar Japan.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Good Morning. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Shochiku
Comedy + Family in Japan
73 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Comedy and Family genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Good Morning itself).
The 1958–1960 Japan Window
Good Morning holds position #7 of 38 Japan films in the 1958–1960 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
#1Hero of the Red Light District
★ 8.6 · 1960
#2The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
★ 8.2 · 1959
#3The Hidden Fortress
★ 8.0 · 1958
#4The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
★ 8.0 · 1959
#5When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
★ 8.0 · 1960
#6Hiroshima Mon Amour
★ 7.8 · 1959
#7Good Morning
★ 7.7 · 1959
#8The Bad Sleep Well
★ 7.7 · 1960
The 1950s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1950s in Japan, 76 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Good Morning premiered alongside 9 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 9 other Japan films in 1959.
The 118th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
218 audience reviews — more than 87% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (87th percentile) outruns trending popularity (50th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Good Morning, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- brotherhood · 4
- japanese family · 4
- boys · 4
- neighborhood · 3
- criterion · 3
- family dynamics · 2
- mischievous children · 2
- television set · 2
- small talk · 2
- inflation · 1
- consumerism · 1
- gossip · 1
- noisy neighbor · 1
- door to door salesman · 1
- town gossip · 1
- missing money · 1
- silence · 1
- child outsmarts adult · 1
- generational divide · 1
- farting · 1
- post war japan · 12
- protest · 10
- japan · 454
- parent child relationship · 46
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #900 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (80th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +0.8 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Comedy productions specifically: #349 of 1,411 (top 25%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Shochiku |
| Runtime | 1h 34m |
| Release Date | May 12, 1959 |
| IMDb | tt0053134 |