Production

Yasujiro Ozu wrote the first draft of There Was a Father before he went to China in 1937. On returning for Japan, he re-wrote it again and feeling that "it could still be improved".

Release

There Was a Father was released on April 1, 1942. The only existing prints of the film were cut by Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...

's censors for postwar rereleases. There Was a Father placed second in the Kinema Junpo

Kinema Junpo

, commonly called , is a Japanese film magazine which began publication in July 1919. The magazine was founded by a group of four students, including Saburō Tanaka, at the Tokyo Institute of Technology . In that first month, it was published three times on days with a "1" in them. These first three...

's annual critics' poll of Japan's Best Ten films.

There Was a Father was released on DVD along with Ozu's The Only Son

The Only Son (1936 film)

is a 1936 film directed by Yasujiro Ozu, starring Chouko Iida and Shinichi Himori. The film was Ozu's first "talkie" feature.-Plot:The film starts in the rural town of Shinshū in 1923. A widow, Tsune Nonomiya , works hard at a silk production factory to provide for her only son, Ryosuke...

by The Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...

on July 13, 2010.