AllMovie

Kimiko is a characteristic blend of farce and melodrama from Japanese filmmaker Mikio Naruse. Abandoned by her selfish father, a resourceful Tokyo lass forges ahead with her wedding plans, even though she will be forbidden to wed unless her dad arranges the details with her in-laws. Swallowing her pride, the heroine sets off to retrieve her errant father, now living in sin with a geisha girl. For his daughter's sake, the father agrees to return and give his marriage to her mother one more try. When this domestic situation proves impossible, the daughter sagaciously sends father packing -- but not before he's done his parental duty by coordinating the arrangements for her wedding. Originally released in 1935 as Tsuma Yo Bara No Yo Ni (Wife! Be More Like a Rose!), Kimiko was Naruse's 25th film -- and also the film selected by Chicago University as the one most "representative of modern Japan" (though it was not, as claimed by the University, Japan's first talking picture).