Ozu's stories are very Japanese and I don't think he made them with export in mind. A lot of Westerners won't "get" everything in his films just because of the cultural context. I'm not saying it's some inscrutable "mystical Japanese" thing that can't be understood by "alien Westerners", either; just that you have to be somewhat familiar with the context in which his movies are made to get them. All of his movies have certain themes in them, many relating to family relationships and the conflict between tradition and modernity. It sounds like you were watching this film without the context in mind, expecting just a generic timeless story with no wider point in mind. So it's not surprising you didn't like it much.
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