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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 |
 "masterfully done"This is an excellent movie but not because it is any sort of a blockbuster motion picture nor because it is a cerebral exploration into one's inner self. It is is excellent because it tells a meaningful story in a very simplistic manner. A retired Japanese couple decide to go to the Big City to visit their adult children. This is a big event, something they apparently have not done for a long time, if ever. Their experiences, once they get to their destination, are disappointing. Their children seem to mean well but it is obvious that mom and dad are "in the way". This seems to be more obvious to the viewers than to mom and dad who seem content with the little attention that they get. There is a tragic ending to the story but the real tragedy has already manifested itself before then. The movie touches us because it hits so close to home (literally). This COULD be us in any of the roles we see. Are we the son who is too busy to take the time to be with his parents? Are we the daughter who wishes they would just visit and leave without staying so long? Are we the son who worries more about how the parents visit will disrupt his life than how he can make their visit enjoyable? Are we the daughter-in-law who can't do enough to entertain them (don't we wish we are)? Or are we the parents who raised these children who are too blind (or is it polite) to realize what we have created (the song "Cat's in the Cradle" comes to mind). The acting in this movie is exceptional because it makes us feel that we really are looking into the lives of an actual family. Nothing is over-stated nor under-stated, it just seems to happen. I wondered how I would have appreciated this movie if I hadn't known of its excellent rating (one of "Sight and Sound"'s top ten of all-time greatest movies). To be honest, I doubt I would have even had the opportunity to see it. However, I think that it would have touched me just as sincerely as it did. This is a movie worth seeing by anyone who doesn't mind reading subtitles in order to discover a bitter-sweet story about their own lives. "A Family: It's who we all are."I saw this movie several years ago with some 100% Japanese girlfriends who had never been to Japan, and rented this tape to prepare their 1st visit w/their Japanese family in Japan. I am only half Japanese, but spent the first 8 years of my life there and return quite frequently. I don't think there is another movie out there that can really flood my eyes. The director's narrative and cinematography to this story is so precise and poignant about families, universally, is what makes it such a High rated classic. The children grow up, move away from their family in the countryside and forget about their parents, even when they come to visit. Busy and tirelessly uncontent with their own lives in Tokyo, hiding their lack of success in the big city, the "children" never see the true blessing to their existence and the "joy" of family. The parents realize they raised a bunch of selfish children who really don't care much about them and decide to maybe return home. There is one character who has lost her parents and is more than willing to take the visiting parents around. The children are striving for other "material" happiness, yet the very thing that could root them is what they avoid, family. Around the world I have seen the happiest families, 3 generations, under one roof. Somehow when families depart and move it's easy to forget and avoid and eventually isolate. This movie reminds me of my family life in Japan, the honesty of the charcters and actions and non-actions had me sobbing the whole way through. This movie transcends all languages and families as these emotions are the human condition. Oddly enough, my Japanese-American friends were confused by how emotional this movie made me. Sadly, I really felt their family value: detatched. This movie is a great reminder to respect your family, no matter what. Their time is not forever, and neither is yours. "Simply Gorgeous"This film is simply gorgeous. No words can describe its artistic value, its importance and impact that it can have on a human being, and its ability to transcend not only film genres, but also race, culture, and ethnicity. The film is mandatory viewing for any human being. It may not only be the greatest film ever made; even better than epics and masterpieces by Kurosawa, Mizoguchi and Bergman, but also the highest form of art known to man. This is not hype, this film is awe-inspiring! "A window into the human condition"Fifty years after this film's release and 100 years after Ozu's birth, audiences in America can now (re)discover this masterpiece. The slow tempo and laser-focus on human lives that Ozu employs is strangely moving. Within a minimalist frame, Ozu paints his characters richly. Instead of bombast, Ozu gives us authenticity. When good-natured parents leave their village to visit their grown children in the big city, it's easy to feel contempt when the parents are shuffled-off to a spa. Yet Ozu does not create villains. He also shows the goodness in these flawed characters. The children have eaked out a survival in Tokyo by struggling through the lean years after the war, which accounts in part for their callousness. Yet Ozu does not excuse their human failure, he is more interested in portraying them for the viewer to observe and be inspired. I think this film will move the viewer towards courtesy, kindness and compassion. And with two DVDs included (the second with almost 3 hours of additional documentaries) it is worth the money. |
