Too busy to entertain them, the children pack them off to a noisy resort. Returning to Tokyo, the old woman visits the widow of another son, who treats her better, while the old man gets drunk with some old companions. They seem to realise they are a burden, and simply try to smooth things over as best they can. Filial piety cannot reach beyond the grave. The last sequence is of the old man alone in his seaside home, followed by an outside shot of the rooftops of the town and a boat passing by on the water.
Life goes on.
The film condemns no one and its sense of inevitability carries with it only a certain resigned sadness. Yet the simple observations are so acute that you feel that no other film could express its subject matter much better. Ozu shoots his story with as little movement of the camera as possible. We view scenes almost always from the floor, lower than the eye level of a seated character. He insisted that no actor was to dominate a scene.