Ôsaka no yado

Shûji Sano slapped his supervisor. They can't fire him; his grandfather was a founder of the insurance company he works at. Instead, they transfer him to Osaka, where he doesn't know anyone, and rents are very high. He settles into a cheap and rundown downtown inn. The staff is friendly and gossipy, and a rowdy geisha, played by Nobuko Otowa, keeps coming into his room, causing even more gossip. He is, however, so stiff and formal and silent, that everyone thinks him odd, until one day he sells his grandfather's French watch, takes some of the inn's staff on a trip to Osaka Castle, and listens as they talk about themselves and their hardscrabble existence. Gradually, he comes to be part of their lives, and they of his.

It's a great movie by Heinosuke Gosho about the flowering of compassion. There is no sense of conventional story arc, in which matters turn out well. Everyone is worse off at the end than at the beginning. Yet it is no tragedy, because there are some things that are more important than material success. Indeed, it is that realization and the acting on it, however unsuccessfully, that makes this movie about the human spirit. Everyone may be worse off materially at the end, but Sano and the friends he has made in Osaka, are better people, more honest, more open, kinder, and determined to be better.