Influenced by Italian Films?

By Italian films, do you mean Italian Neo - Realism? If so I can see what you mean in terms of its realist setting in a working class neighborhood and the domestic problems of the characters.

"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".

I also thought the music was also more European than Oriental, but given the subject matter the time it was made and the bittersweet music, I thought more of Tati than the Italians. It's themes of encroaching modernism, even globalisation were very like Mon Oncle, I thought.

Maybe it is more a Japanese that seems similar? It reminded me of Kurosawa's Do-des-ka-dan from a few years later in the social study of a small community's interactions.

However, the ongoing close-up shot of the intersection of a couple of the houses was visually striking, always showing just a peak of traffic on the path overhead. But I also wondered if it could also have been just a cheap set--we don't see very much of the community at all.

Maybe it's just me, but to me it reminded me just of other Ozu films. Ozu had such a unique and recognizable style that that is pretty much all I can see in each of his films (even this one, which is much funnier than his others but still maintains the distinct Ozu style). I think this is a good thing, by the way, not redundant, since Ozu's style is always so satisfying. I don't think that Ozu was ever much interested in being influenced by other styles or making tributes to other styles or other filmmakers.

I have no idea about his inspiration, but to me as a European, it felt very much like a European film. And perhaps that's the point? This is middle class Japan, but it could be Any Place, Anywhere? It could've been Italy in the late 50's, or France, or Sweden, or even somewhere in Russia.

It's the same kind of kids with kids dreams and kids problems and kids mischeif. It's the same kind of tired and overworked absent fathers, it's the same gossping clique of housewifes, it's the same storm in a water bottle kind of small town drama.

When I saw it, I imagined it being the love child of Jacques Tati and Stanley Kubrick, if they had decided to do a light entertainment melodrama between them. And it reminded me very much of the Italian neo-realism, De Sica of course, but also Fellini and the later post-modernist/nostalgic Ettore Scola. This was Ozus take on that kind of inspiration...

I absolutely relate to this comparison. I'm not sure I think that Ozu was influenced by Fellini or Italian cinema here (though it's certainly possible), but I do think that any viewer versed in Fellini or Italian cinema (or Tati) is going to immediately make the comparison, assuming they have the volume loud enough to hear the music. And that's one thing to keep in mind. It's possible that Ozu was not inspired by these filmmakers himself, but that his composer was. For "Good Morning" specifically, I was reminded incredibly of Jacques Tati. The scorer for this film couldn't have imitated Tati's films' music better if he'd lifted the pieces straight out of the films. I mean it's virtually identical. That being said, it also did have an Italian/Nino Rota/Fellini ring to it, and I specifically remember the first time I saw a newer, color Ozu film ("Floating Weeds"), I thought to myself, "This reminds me vaguely of 'Amarcord'", mostly because of the music, but also because of the similarly sentimental and nostalgic tone that Ozu, Tati, and Fellini all share. Of course, by and large films like "Floating Weeds" and "Good Morning" are predominantly Ozu films. They bear his hallmarks a hundred times more than anyone else's -- that goes without saying -- but your question hit the nail right on the head in terms of associations I made in my mind during those two films. That lively, nostalgic, delightfully charming music of which Nino Rota was indisputably the grandmaster, and which Tati's films also utilized so well -- I can definitely see it in late Ozu works.