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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 |
 "Master Ozu's Film Will Make You Reflect"Everyone who watches this film seems, inevitablly, to reflect on their own family. It is a great tribute to Ozu that we take his films to heart and relate them to ourselves. I have seldom been effected, myself, in such a way by a movie. Technically, it is such a well made, unconventional, film. The low camera angles, steady unmoving camera, and fine acting of Ozu's films have been much talked about. This is one of the Criterion dvd's that is worth every penny - even at $40 (the price I paid). To purchase a film that effects you in such a personal way - well, the price is really no issue - you should buy this movie and watch it! "Best of the Best of the Best"This 1953 Japanese film, a gaping hole in the knowledge of most film fans, is finally available with subtitles on DVD. It consistently appears on lists of the top 10 movies of all time, in the company of Citizen Kane, The Godfather, 2001 A Space Odyssey and Seven Samurai. It is about the inevitable transitory nature of family, portrayed with the sensitivity that is found only in works such as King Lear. It is a difficult film to start into, flagrantly delaying information needed to sort out the characters and their motivations, insisting that the viewer unwilling to invest undivided attention is unworthy of a thoroughly crafted and intelligent entertainment. It relies on subtle behavior nuances rather than dramatic action sequences. It refuses to manipulate, draw quick conclusions, succumb to sentimentality or imply polarizing judgments. However, after half the story has elapsed, an underlying omniscience begins to emerge, and a sense that a masterwork is in progress becomes pervasive. The cinematography, at first baffling for the artistically uninitiated, justifies itself as totally appropriate, reprising earlier shots to complete mood loops accessible to even the most desensitized viewer. The concluding dialogues precisely tie up the many loose ends and leaves one awestruck in a blinding flash of the obvious. This movie is rightly regarded as one of the best of the best of the best of all time. ""I'd have been Kinder to Her""This movie begins simply enough with the elderly couple Shukichi and Tomi arriving in Tokyo to see their collective children and grandchildren whom they have not seen for a number of years. At first it seems like everything is going well. They at first stay with their eldest son Koichi, who is a children's doctor, and are able to rest a bit around their children and grandchilden, Isamu and Minoru who are a bit less than thrilled having their grandparents stay with them. However, things begin to sour soon after the couple's arrival. One Sunday, when the entire family is planning on going out together Koichi is called into work. This sets off a series of events in which Koichi and his family are too busy to spend time with his parents. Feeling their welcome strained at Koichi's, the couple decides to stay with their eldest daughter, Shige. However, Shige is even less accomodating than Koichi. From the moment her parents walk through the door, she is complaining about their presence and unloads them on Noriko, the widow of Shukichi and Tomi's second son who died in World War II. Although Noriko lives in a small, spartan apartment, brings in less income, and is not even a blood relative she looks after the old couple better than their children. However, while the old couple is with Noriko, Shige convinces Koichi to have his parent's visit Atami instead of spending the remaining days of their trip with them. Shukichi and Tomi do go, but they soon return because the establishment is intended for a younger crowd. Almost thrown out of Shige's home when they return, Tomi stays the night with Noriko again, and Shukichi goes out to drink with his old friends Hattori and Numata. While Tomi has a heart to heart conversation with Noriko, Shukichi gets completely wasted, and upon returning to Shige's, with a drunken Numata, the viewer witnesses Shige pushing and prodding Shukichi. Although this seems a bit cruel, and it is, Shige is actually a bit concerned that her father is drinking again. The next morning Shukichi and Tomi board a train to return home, but Tomi becomes ill so the couple has to make an emergency stop in Osaka where they stay with their third son, Keizo. They eventually make it backhome, but soon after their arrival, Tomi becomes very ill. Telegrams are sent to each family member to return to the family home immediately... This is a wonderful film. I have heard much about Ozu since I became a graduate student, but I had never watched one of his films before. This one is quite moving and it depicts quite well how a family can grow apart from each other. The scene where Shige asks to have a couple of pieces of her mother's clothing, on the day of the funeral, left me steaming.  "Three Stars"This is the story of an elderly Japanese grandma & grandpa who travel a far distance by train to visit their kids in Tokyo. Only problem is, their kids live in tiny crowded homes and are not on vacation. This leads to the parents being unceremoniously routed from one child to the next because nobody has the time to entertain them. As it turns out, the child who is nicest to them is the daughter-in-law, wife of their dead son, who we presume died in the war. When the grandma dies unexpectedly, the children are very concerned about grabbing her possessions. I assume the director is trying to make a statement about the elderly not getting the respect and the compassion that they enjoyed in the pre-war era, but I can't say for sure since this is outside of my culture. This film was shot in black & white. Sometimes black & white has a wonderfully velvety and mysterious quality and sometimes it simply looks harsh. In this picture it comes across as harsh. The subtitles are in white with black outline and they are very difficult to read. Half the time they are just blending right into the picture. I had to sit very close to the tv set in order to catch all the words, and I have 20/20 vision with my glasses. I think the subtitles should have been done in red or some other color that would make them easier to read. "How would you not like Tokyo Story?"By demanding almost all the things one sees in modern popular cinema: double digit violence, fart jokes, love stories on a par with deoderant commercials. The usual crap that passes as comedy, insight, heart, whatever. With Ozu we enter a whole new landscape that contains subtlties upon subtlties. Wind upon the ocean. The embarrasment of older parents shuffled off to jazzy seaside. An unknown but somehow recognizable temple on a hill-top.An ungrateful and grating daughter.People loping along on a tour bus. A vivacious continuously grateful daughter- in law. well-- This is Ozu and as people onthis review-page have summed up the story line I won't go into that. But look to Ozu for what you won't find elsewhere: the world in semi-tones. The world in little moments that we so busy spending that their resonance eludes us. This is a great film. But a very quiet one. It unravels before you like your own family might: parents come to visit. are going to spend time with them. Don't spend time with them. Shuffle them off to seaside. Dissapointment. Shuffle them off to Daughter in law. Some success there though some guilt. Father gets Drunk. Things just keep going on. I've watched this film at least 3 or 4 times and never tire of it. Don't look for action or even monumental drama and enjoy. |
