Tonari no Yae-chan

It's a pleasant middle class suburban street where Den Ohinata is practicing baseball for his league match, occasionally putting a baseball through a neighbor's window. He has a friendly relationship with Yumeko Aizome, the girl next door, a few years younger than he. Their fathers get together every evening to drink perhaps a little more sake than they should; still, it's only a few yards to get home, and we know how this situation is going to turn out...until Miss Aizome's sister, Yoshikawa Okada, comes home. Something has gone wrong with her marriage, and now she's looking for love in all the wrong places.

It's a pleasant, minor comedy from director Yasujirô Shimazu, and it wouldn't have looked strange had it been made in America, with American actors. There are a lot of references to American movies; Miss Aizome's friends think Ohinata looks like Frederick March, and towards the end, they got to a movie show, where they see a new Fleischer cartoon, HA! HA! HA! Everything is up to date, Japan is part of a cosmopolitan society, and life is one long, sweet dream where one can marry the girl next door.