Apart From You (1933) review

Deeply ashamed that his mother Kikue (Mitsuko Yoshikawa) works as a geisha, student Yoshio (Akio Isono) skips out of school and hangs around with the local thugs, so to try to smooth him over, Mom's co-worker Terugiku (Sumiko Mizukubo) takes him on a trip to visit with her (unsupportive) family.  As one of Naruse's quickie silent pictures it's fairly average and wading in very familiar (and melodramatic) territory, but there is a strong human element to it, and Naruse shows his characters a good deal of pity and compassion (when Mizukubo's character lashes out at her parents it's completely understandable).  The dolly abuse, however, is still inexcusable.