Onna no za, which can be translated as A Woman's Place, is a 1962 Japanese family drama directed by Mikio Naruse from a script by Tochirô Ide and Zenzô Matsuyama.
An old shopkeeper from Tokyo lives with his second wife and three unmarried daughters, in addition to his widowed daughter-in-law and a grandson, still gravitating around the family, two more married daughters and a son and even a stepson, who appears to launch even greater instability in the family.
Such a large family brings inevitable problems, including rivalries, envy, succession and financial disputes, infidelities, competitions, etc. The old couple, who hoped, with so many children, to have a peaceful life in their old age, find themselves confronted with an intricate web of interests, which progressively distances them from their selfish children.
An interesting reflection on family life, which is also a picturesque portrait of Japanese society, in the early 1960s, reminiscent of, and certainly influenced by, the work of Ozu, who so well portrayed the same society in previous decades.
