Wissenswertes

Contains only 353 shots. The average shot length is 14.8 seconds.

In 1919 when Ozu was a high school student, a boat in which one of his classmates was riding capsized in the Dotonbori canal in Osaka. This was said to be the inspiration for the scene in the film in which the student drowns from a capsized boat.

Chishu Ryu and Shuji Sano played father and son in the film, even though Ryu was only eight years older than Sano in real life.

Ozu Yasujiro's 1942 film 'There Was a Father' has been restored to include some scenes deleted by censors during the Occupation of Japan. The movie - originally released during World War II - will be showcased at the Venice International Film Festival.

And on August 22, 2023, NHK announced that this year's Venice International Film Festival will host a restored print of Es war einmal ein Vater (1942) - with scenes originally axed by the Occupation censors. Among the reinstated footage is the above-mentioned poetry scene (likely cut because of rhetoric about feudal loyalty to the nation) and a closing sequence wherein Japanese civilians sing to war-bound soldiers.

This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #526.