Third in the centenary poll by Kinema-Junpo magazine about all-time best Japanese films, only Seven Samurai (1954) and Tokyo Story (1953) preceded it.
One of Akira Kurosawa's favourite films.
It is one of the favourite films of Directors like Edward Yang, Wim Wenders and Aki Kaurismaki.
Martin Scorsese's showed his appreciation for this movie in an interview he said he couldn't believe it had taken so long for his to see the works of Mikio Naruse.
Ranked number 95 non-English-speaking film in the critics' poll conducted by the BBC in 2018.