Tokyo Story (1953)
Short description
Tokyo Story (東京物語, Tōkyō Monogatari) is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu. Tokyo Story is widely regarded as Ozu's masterpiece and one of the greatest films in history of cinema. It was voted the greatest film of all time in the 2012 edition of a widely-respected poll of film directors by Sight & Sound magazine.
Like all of Ozu's sound films, Tokyo Story's pacing is slow. Important events are often not shown on screen but revealed through dialogue. Ozu favored a stationary camera and believed strongly in minimalism. Themes in the film include the break-up and Westernization of the traditional Japanese family after World War II and the inevitability of children growing apart from their parents.
Plot
The film takes place in 1953 post-war Japan, a few years after the new Civil Code of 1948 stimulated the country's rapid re-growth and embraced Western capitalist ideals while simultaneously destroying older traditions such as the Japanese family and its values. Retired couple Shūkichi and Tomi Hirayama live in Onomichi in western Japan with their daughter Kyōko, a primary school teacher. They have five adult children, four of whom are living. The couple travel to Tokyo to visit their son, daughter, and widowed daughter-in-law.
Screenshots
Some memorable lines
| Noriko | I'm not always thinking of your son, though you think I am. |
| Shukichi Hirayama | I'll be happy if you forget him. |
| Noriko | I'm not the nice woman she thought I was. If you see me like that, it embarrasses me. |
| Shukichi Hirayama | No, it shouldn't. |
| Noriko | Really, I'm quite selfish. |
| Kyoko | I think they should have stayed a bit longer. |
| Noriko | But they're busy. |
| Kyoko | They're selfish. Demanding things and leaving like this. |
| Noriko | They have their own affairs. |
| Kyoko | But you have yours too. They're selfish. |
| Noriko | But Kyoko... |
| Kyoko | Wanting her clothes right after her death. I felt so sorry for poor mother. Even strangers would have been more considerate! |
| Noriko | But look Kyoko. At your age I thought so too. But children do drift away from their parents. A woman has her own life, apart from her parents, when she becomes Shige's age. She meant no harm I'm sure. They have to look after their own lives. |
| Kyoko | I wonder: I won't ever be like that. Then what's the point of family? |
| Noriko | But children become like that, gradually. |
| Kyoko | Then... you, too? |
| Noriko | I may become like that in spite of myself. |
| Kyoko | Isn't life disappointing? |
| Noriko | Yes, it is. |
Critical reception
Tokyo Story is often admired as a work that achieves great emotional effect while avoiding melodrama.
Main actors
- Setsuko Hara as Noriko Hirayama
- Chishû Ryû as Shukichi Hirayama
- Chieko Higashiyama as Tomi Hirayama
- Sô Yamamura as Koichi Hirayama
- Haruko Sugimura as Shige Kaneko
- Kyôko Kagawa as Kyôko Hirayama