Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari)

jac 02/24/03

Released: 1953
Length: 135 minutes
Producer: Shochiku/Ofuna
Director: Ozu, Yasujiro
Screenplay: Noda Kogo & Ozu
Cinematographer: Atsuta, Yushun
Music: Saito, Takanori

Cast:

Father (Shukichi)......................................................Ryu, Chishu
Mother (Tomi)...........................................Higashiyama, Chiyeko
Married Son (Koichi)...................................................Yamamura, So
Married Daughter (Shige)......................................Sugimura, Haruko
Widowed Daughter-in-law (Noriko)..............................Hara, Setsuko
Younger Daughter (Kyoko)........................................Kagawa, Kyoko
Younger Son (Keizo)......................................................Osaka, Shiro

Awards:

                    Kinema Jumpo # 2 (1953),
                    Geijutsusai Grand Prize (1957)
                    London National Film Theater Southerland Prize (1957)

General Description:

An elderly couple living in Onomichi (on the Inland Sea about halfway between Okayama and Hiroshima), go to Tokyo to visit their two married children and their son's widow. Their reception is disappointing: both the son and the daughter are busy with their own lives and send their parents off to the hot springs resort of Atami, ostensibly as a treat, actually to get rid of them. The only one who is truly nice to them is the widow of their other son, who died during the war. Shortly after the old couple returns home, the children receive telegrams saying the mother is ill. But before they can all arrive in Onomichi, she dies. Following the funeral, the married children rush back to Tokyo, but the daughter-in-law stays on. She confesses that living as a widow is difficult for her, and the father advises her to remarry. Then, alone, he sits in the empty house. [from Ozu, by Donald Richie].

Commentary:

Tokyo Story is probably the prototypical Ozu film. Made twenty years after I Was Born, But..., it distills the essential cinematic techniques already visible in Ozu's early films: Simple story, stationary low camera, long takes, exquisitely careful composition and framing, understated acting, complete reliance on the straight cut for punctuation, archetypal location shots used sparingly to provide opportunities for quiet reflection, etc. The film is totally economical, with no wasted shots. Utterly free of artificial devices, it demands much from the audience and rings true because of its unadorned presentation. Of this film, Ozu once said, Through the growth of both parents and children, I described how the Japanese family system has begun to come apart. He also considered Tokyo Story to be the most melodramatic of his films, yet it never plays on cheap sentiments. Rather, its feelings and characters are genuine and come across as completely believable.