Tuesday, November 05, 2019
Tokyo Story
- Commentary: This movie is the Japanese version of Make Way for Tomorrow. Literally. Ozu admitted, at one time, that he was influenced by Make Way for Tomorrow to create this movie. This is also my favorite Ozu film, if I can be said to have a favorite. I also love Ikiru, although I don't own it (yet), and, of course, I do own An Autumn Afternoon, which I also love. Ozu had a way with the subject of aging. Tokyo Story is never maudlin, never particularly editorial (although, of course, fiercely editorial in the choice of subject matter). Tokyo Story is also not pointedly about aging, but, rather, about inter-generational conflict when aging is involved. And yet, despite its trajectory, it does not strike me as tragic. Perhaps that's because I was my mother's enthusiastic companion through her last almost two decades and subtly nurtured her amazing belief that she was going to live forever in the flesh. She, by the way, informed me that I would also live forever in the flesh, a prophecy that I happily embraced. Are you kidding? The two of us living, together, forever? Oh, my what adventures we'd have (to misquote Dr. Seuss)!
Roger Ebert was so impressed with the movie that he wrote two reviews of it: the second, a "Great Movies" review, linked to the title of this post and the first, his review after the first time he saw it, which is linked a bit further down in this post. They are somewhat similar, but I think any readers will get a kick out of comparing the two.
In addition, the cinematography and the choices made in regard to connecting scenes are intuitively brilliant, from my perspective. The mood is preserved, throughout, by these delicate, connecting links in the chain of the story.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Chishū Ryū Shūkichi Hirayama Chieko Higashiyama Tami Hirayama Setsuko Hara Noriko Hirayama Haruko Sugimura Shige Kaneko So Yamamura Kōichi Hirayama Kuniko Miyake Fumiko Hirayama Kyōko Kagawa Kyōko Hirayama Eijirō Tōno Sanpei Numata Nobuo Nakamura Kurazō Kaneko Shirō Ōsaka Keizō Hirayama Hisao Toake Osamu Hattori Teruko Nagaoka Yone Hattori
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 1953
Directed by Yasujirō Ozu.
Labels: §1, aging, chishū-ryū, Criterion1, drama2, film-art1, psychological1, spiritual1, yasujirō-ozu
