it has been claimed that, after noriko accepts satake’s marriage proposal, the film ceases to be about her, and that prof. somiya at that point becomes the true protagonist, with the focus of the film shifting to his increasing loneliness and grief. in this regard, a plot change that the filmmakers made from the original source material is significant. in the novel by kazuo hirotsu, the father’s announcement to his daughter that he wishes to marry a widow is only "initially" a ruse; eventually, he actually does get married again. ozu and his co-screenwriter, noda, deliberately rejected this "witty" ending, in order to show prof. somiya as alone and inconsolable at the end.