I love films that exist as observational pieces on family dynamics. Yasujiro Ozu made this his own dynamic, exploring complicated relationships between families with sometimes devastating results. "What Did the Lady Forget?" is his second sound film and is more comical than his later works yet there are nuggets of truth buried in its observations.
A wealthy professor of medicine, Dr. Komiya (Tatsuo Saito), needs precious time away from his overbearing wife, Tokiko (Sumiko Kurishima). The old man is about to play golf and then decides not, opting to have a drink at a Ginza bar known as the Cervantes Bar! Since his progressive teenage niece from Osaka is in town, Setsuko (Michiko Kuwano), she follows him to the bar and drinks and smokes (oh, these rebellious teens!) Setsujo stands up to Tokiko, refusing to cater to her demands of not drinking since Tokiko sees her as too young. The doctor is more amused than upset at his niece, and they frequent together at the bar. Of course, Dr. Komiya cannot admit to being at the bar since he's supposedly playing golf and it is raining! Komiya can't escape his wife finding about his lies and it leads to a moment of him slapping his wife in the face that almost stops everything cold.
At 71 minutes, "What Did the Lady Forget?" explores these characters though not with quite enough depth - it is more of a treatment that could've been expanded to a longer running time (note the running time of Ozu's later efforts). I did find it to be exquisitely made and consistently absorbing in its depiction of the interior lives of this family - most of it feels like a stage play though it reads as much more cinematic. Most memorable characters are Saito's doctor, who rubs his head when he is happy, and Kuwano's luminous Setsuko. "What Did the Lady Forget?" is not a bad place to start if you have never seen an Ozu film.
