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This movie takes a look at a very Westernized subarban Japan in the late 50's. It focuses mainly on the daily lives of a small community and the way its members interact. It also demonstrates the power of speech and the way in which small talk acts as a lubricant for our daily lives. Written by {[email protected]} Two boys beg their parents for a television set, nagging them until all patience is lost. The parents order the boys to be quiet and the boys do exactly that--refusing to utter a word. The boys' silence ultimately puts the whole neighborhood into turmoil. Written by Jim Beaver {[email protected]} These two summaries might sound pretty different but they are both accurate. This film is about normal families in Japan as the memory of postwar life among the rubble was fading and people were adjusting to Japan's new economic prosperity and consumerism. It focuses mainly on the school age kids who wind up nagging their parents for a TV as jumblejim says. So it is a fun movie about parents and kids but it is worth keeping in mind the time in which this film is set. The parents are of the generation of Japanese who remember the destruction and starvation of WWII and the kids are the "spoiled" new generation born afterward. The "new" prosperous world has mostly replaced the "old", but look closely for reminders of the war. They may not be easy to find, but that's the point. TVs and washing machines are actually very important here since this is the period when everyone was getting their very first one.