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Tokyo Story - Criterion Collection Actors: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura Director: Yasujiro Ozu Number of Items: 2 Picture Format: Academy Ratio Format: Black & White, Color Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 135 minutes Studio: Criterion Collection Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-10-28 Buy from Amazon |
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From Description Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) follows an aging couple, Tomi and Sukichi, on their journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in bustling, post-war Tokyo. Their reception, however, is disappointing: too busy to entertain them, their children send them off to a health spa. After Tomi falls ill, she and Sukichi return home, while the children, grief-stricken, hasten to be with her. From a simple tale unfolds one of the greatest of all Japanese films. Starring Ozu regulars Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara, the film reprises one of the director's favorite themes—that of generational conflict—in a way that is quintessentially Japanese and yet so universal in its appeal that it continues to resonate as one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces. |
 "Great film, with a great message."A lovely movie with excellent direction and brilliant acting. Any true fan of cinemography will enjoy the interesting camera views, the beautiful scenes vis a vi the direction and the touching plot. However, this movie won't fare well with modern audiences, because first it is in a foreign language (English subtitles) and second it is a very slow developing movie. In our current society, where the average attention span is about five minutes, this movie won't be appreciated. But, for those who enjoy a intellectually stimulating experience, "Tokyo Story" will make you reflect on your ideals and convictions towards your family, especially your parents. Unfortunately, I don't see how today's younger audiences will get anything out of this film. Seeing as how most of their mentalities are "turn 18, say goodbye to mom and dad, live as salaciously and promiscuously as legally and physically possible, and then eventually get married because all my friends are doing it." If you are patient and enjoy reading books, you will love this movie. However, if you need action and constant eye candy, you might want to avoid this film. Keep in mind that it truly is a classic, with a valuable message. I don't know if you want to pay forty dollars for it, unless you are a collector. If you are just curious, you might want to check your local library for it and if you like it as much as I did, then buy it. If you are looking for a nice film that is much lighter and carries some of the same messages, try "A Blast From the Past" with Brandon Frasier. "A great look at postwar Japan"This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. "Tokyo Story" released in japan as "Tokyo Monogatari" is a very nice look at Japan in the early postwar years.. In the film, an elderly couple living in the country visit their children in the city. Unfortunately their children have other plans and are too busy to be with them. The father subsequently gets sick and they go home. This film is one of the most popular Japanese film ever made and is very worthy of a release on the Criterion Collection. The DVD has some excellent special features too. Dice one contains the film with optional audio commentary by David Desser. it also has a theatrical trailer. Disc two has two documentaries about the director Yasujiro Ozu. "Talking with Ozu" is a collection of tributes by various filmmakers in celebration of the 90th anniversery of Ozu's birth. The persons giving the tributes are: Stanley Kwan, Aki Kaurismäki, Claire Denis, Lindsay Anderson, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. The other documentary is "I lived but..." the title is a variation of the titles of some of Ozu's films. It included interviews with Shomei Imamura, Donald Richie, Tadao Sato, Chisu Ryu, Mariko Okada, and many others. This release is one that all Ozu fans should watch.  "Immaculate Conception"Ozu's grave is marked by the Buddhist symbol "Mu" or "nothingness". We can look at many of Ozu's films as extended sighs that express the fleeting, disappointing nature of life. I love Ozu and his static camera, and his revelation of a changing post-war Japan, with the attendant upheaval of social norms, the changeing relationships between parents and siblings, and the loss of the family that prefigures the ultimate loss...that of death. Tokyo Story shows us all of this so exquisitely, painfully. Ozu's Tokyo Story is conceived with an immaculate presentation of everyday detritus from teapots to tatami, people inhabiting rooms then disappearing: the codas of laundry lines or train stations or empty rooms expressing this "Mu" that lies before and after this life. Ozu's sigh is so beautiful, so truthful, we've all felt his films as truth in our own lives. I embrace his deep humanity, and feel lucky to have experienced his films. "Ozu's Quietly Brilliant Masterpiece Deserves Your Attention"I think this movie is amazing for reasons I was not expecting. I had heard of Yasujiro Ozu's "Tokyo Story" for several years but never had an opportunity to see it until Criterion resuscitated it as part of their DVD collection. Over fifty years old, this wondrous 1953 film resonates just as deeply today. Those outside Japan rarely get to see a Japanese film classic that doesn't involve samurai warriors in medieval battles. This one, however, is a subtly observed family drama set in post-WWII Japan, and it is the quietude and lack of pretense of Ozu's filmmaking style that makes this among the most moving of films. The plot centers on Shukishi and Tomi, an elderly couple, who traverse the country from their southern fishing village of Onomichi to visit their adult children, daughter Shige and son Koichi, in Tokyo. Leading their own busy lives, the children realize their obligation to entertain them and pack them off to Atami, a nearby resort targeted to weekend revelers. Returning to Tokyo unexpectedly, Tomi visits their kindly daughter-in-law, Noriko, the widow of second son Shoji, while Shukishi gets drunk with some old companions. The old couple realizes they have become a burden to their children and decide to return to Onomichi. They also have a younger daughter Kyoko, a schoolteacher who lives with them, and younger son Keizo works for the train company in Osaka. By now the children, except for Kyoko and the dutiful Noriko, have given up on their parents, even when Tomi takes ill in Osaka on the way back home. From this seemingly convoluted, trivial-sounding storyline, fraught with soap opera possibilities, Ozu has fashioned a heartfelt and ultimately ironic film that focuses on the details in people's lives rather than a single dramatic situation. What fascinates me about Ozu's idiosyncratic style is how he relies on insinuation to carry his story forward. In fact, some of the more critical events happen off-camera because Ozu's simple, penetrating observations of these characters' lives remain powerfully insightful without being contrived. Ozu scholar David Desser, who provides insightful commentary on the alternate audio track, explains this concept as "narrative ellipses", Ozu's singularly effective means of providing emotional continuity to a story without providing all the predictable detail in between. Ozu also positions his camera low throughout his film to replicate the perspective of someone sitting on a tatami mat. It adds significantly to the humanity he evokes. There are no melodramatic confrontations among the characters, no masochistic showboating, and the dialogue is deceptively casual, as even the most off-hand remark bears weight into the story. The film condemns no one and its sense of inevitability carries with it only certain resigned sadness. What amazes me most is how the ending is so cathartic because the characters feel so real to me, not because there are manipulative plot developments, even death, which force me to feel for them. I just love the performances, as they have a neo-realism that makes them all the more affecting. Chishu Ryu and Chieko Higashiyama are wonderfully authentic as Shukishi and Tomi, perfectly conveying the resignation they feel about their lives and their children without slipping into cheap sentimentality. Higashiyama effortlessly displays the sunny demeanor of a grandmother, so when sadness does take over in her life, it becomes all the more haunting. In particular, she has a beautiful scene where Tomi looks forlornly at her grandchild wondering what he will be when he grows up and whether she will live to see what happens. Even more heartbreaking is the scene where Shukishi and Tomi sit in Ueno Park realizing their children have no time for them and are resigned to the fact that they need to find a place to sleep for the night. The closest the film has to a villain is Shige, portrayed fearlessly by Haruko Sugimura, who is able to show respect, pettiness and conniving in a realistically mercurial fashion. Watch her as she complains about the expensive cakes her husband bought for her parents (as she selfishly eats them herself) or how she finagles Koichi to co-finance the trip to Atami or how she shows her frustration when her parents come home early from the spa. So Yamamura (familiar to later Western audiences as Admiral Yamamoto in "Tora! Tora! Tora!") displays the right amount of indifference as Koichi, and Kyoko Kagawa has a few sharp lines toward the end of the film as the disappointed Kyoko. But the best performance comes from the legendary Setsuko Hara, a luminous actress whose beauty and sensitivity remind me of Olivia de Havilland during the same era. As Noriko, she is breathtaking in showing her character's modesty, her unforced generosity in spite of her downscale status and her constant smile as a mask for her pain. She has a number of deeply affecting moments, for instance, when Noriko explains to Shukishi and Tomi how she misses her husband, even though it is implied he was a brutalizing alcoholic; or the touching goodbye to Kyoko; or her pained embarrassment over the high esteem that Shukishi holds for her kindness. Don't expect fireworks or any shocking moments, just a powerfully emotional film in spite of its seemingly modest approach. The two-disc DVD set has the commentary from Desser on the first disc, as well as the trailer. On the second disc, there are two excellent documentaries. One is a comprehensive 1983, two-hour feature focused on Ozu's life and career, and the second is a 40-minute tribute from several international movie directors. "Tokyo Story - Jei Tootle, 34, London, UK"I first watched this film 15 years ago. It still moves me. A wonderful example of less is more. Perfect film making. |
