They are determined to have a nice day even though they only have thirty-five yen between them, but this is easier said than done: they hear about an apartment they hope to rent so they can live together, but find it is too expensive.

Yuzo's spirits begin to lift as he and Masako talk about their dream of opening a "café for the masses" with good food and drinks at reasonable prices; they even act out running their shop in an empty lot they pass by.

[5] Seen as a variation on the shomin-geki genre,[6][7] One Wonderful Sunday depicts the everyday life of a young lower-middle class couple in the aftermath of the Second World War.

[8] He continues, writing that it reflects a counter-point to his earlier film No Regrets for Our Youth as being a more cynical take on the Occupation and national recovery.

Noting that suffering in contemporary Japan was widespread, Conrad states that Yuzo and Masako are "unrealistically upright in their adherence to moral ideals".

[10] As the first major role of her career, One Wonderful Sunday briefly made Chieko Nakakita a star in Toho, while it was the only Kurosawa film that her co-star Numasaki acted in.

[16] Writing in 1986, Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called One Wonderful Sunday "stylistically excessive, [and] wildly experimental", but wrote that it does presage the genius of Kurosawa's later works, "with low tracking shots, characteristically close crops and obstructive scenery making their debut.