Tokyo Story (東京物語, Tōkyō Monogatari?) is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujiro Ozu. It tells the story of a couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children, but find their children are too absorbed in their own lives to spend much time with their parents. It is often regarded as Ozu's greatest masterpiece, and has twice appeared in Sight & Sound magazine's 'Top Ten' list of the greatest films ever made.
Plot
Two elderly parents Shukichi (Chishu Ryu) and Tomi Hirayama (Chieko Higashiyama), from the small seaside town of Onomichi in southwest Japan, pay a visit to their busy children in Tokyo and Osaka. Only their youngest unmarried daughter lives with them: Kyoko (Kyoko Kagawa), a schoolteacher.
After the journey to Tokyo, they find themselves neglected by their children. Their eldest son, Koichi (So Yamamura), is a district pediatrician with two boys. Their eldest daughter, Shige (Haruko Sugimura), is a hairdresser. The children wish to spend time with their parents, and do, to an extent; but, as they have lives, work and families of their own, they find it difficult to maintain a balance between the two. Only the couple's widowed daughter-in-law Noriko, played by Setsuko Hara, goes out of her way to entertain them. She brings them for a sightseeing tour around metropolitan Tokyo.
Koichi and Shige pay for their parents' cheap stay at the hot spring spa at Atami, but the parents return because the busy nightlife at the hotel interrupts their sleep. Shukichi stays with Shige and visits some old friends, while Tomi goes to visit Noriko. At Noriko's, Tomi advises Noriko to remarry as their son has been dead for eight years since the war.
The couple, seeing that their children are too busy, leave for home. They stop at their youngest son Keizo's (Shiro Osaka) place at Osaka, but during the ensuing train journey Tomi is taken ill. When they reach Onomichi, Tomi becomes critically ill. Koichi, Shige and Noriko rush to Onomichi, on receiving telegrams, to see Tomi, who dies shortly afterwards. Keizo arrives late as he is outstationed.
After the funeral, Koichi, Shige and Keizo decide to leave immediately as they have their work at Osaka and Tokyo, leaving only Noriko to keep their father company. After they leave, Kyoko complains to Noriko that they are selfish and inconsiderate, but Noriko explains that everyone has their own lives to lead and that the drift between parents and children is inevitable.
After Kyoko leaves for school, Noriko informs her father-in-law that she must return to Tokyo that afternoon. Shukichi notes ironically that it is she, a daughter-in-law who has no blood relation with them, who has treated them best during their Tokyo visit. He gives her a watch from the late Tomi as a memento, and advises her to remarry. At the end, the train with Noriko speeds from Onomichi back to Tokyo, leaving behind Kyoko and Shukichi.
Style
Like all of Ozu's sound films, Tokyo Story's pacing is slow (or, as David Bordwell prefers to describe it, "calm").[1] Important events are often not shown on screen, only being revealed later through dialogue; this technique is called ellipsis. For example, Ozu does not depict the mother and father's journey to Tokyo at all.[2] Ozu uses his distinctive camera style, often called “tatami-mat” shot, in which the camera height is low and almost never moves; film critic Roger Ebert wryly notes that once in the film the camera actually pans away from a stationary view, which is "more than usual" for Ozu.[3]
Reception
In Sight and Sound magazine's polls of directors and critics, Tokyo Story is has appeared twice among the ten greatest films ever made (it was 3rd in 1992 and 5th in 2002 on the critics' poll). It has a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes out of 21 critic reviews, with also the highest average critical score on the website at 9.7/10. [4] John Walker, former editor of the Halliwell's Film Guides, places Tokyo Story at the top of his published list of the best 1000 films ever made. Tokyo Story is also included in film critic Derek Malcolm's The Century of Films,[5] a list of films which he deems artistically or culturally important, and Time Magazine lists it among their All-Time 100 Movies. Roger Ebert includes it in his series of great movies,[3] and Paul Schrader placed it in the "Gold" section of his Film Canon.[6] The film was restored and released on DVD by The Criterion Collection as a two-disc DVD set (Region 1) and by Tartan Video in Region 2.
References
- ^ David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film History: An Introducion, 2003 (2nd ed.), McGraw-Hill, p396
- ^ David Desser, 'The Space of Ambivalence' in Film Analysis, ed. Jeffrey Geiger (Norton, 2005), 462-3.
- ^ a b Roger Ebert's review of "Tokyo Story"
- ^ Rotten Tomatoes - Tokyo Story
- ^ Derek Malcolm "Yasujiro Ozu: Tokyo Story", The Guardian, 4 May 2000; A Century of Film, 2000, London: IB Tauris, p85-87
- ^ Paul Schrader's Film Canon, Film Comment - September/October 2006
External links
