Tokyo Story (1953)
(Tokyo Monogatari)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 135m
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Cast: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara
Synopsis:
An elderly couple travel some distance to visit their grown-up children in Tokyo, but they come second place to the more pressing daily affairs of their offspring. Only the widow of their son missing in action takes the time and trouble to entertain them.
Review:
This long and detailed film, which gains power from its painstakingness and understatement, is in many ways a template for the later films of its director. His technique of filming dialogue exchanges front-on, his low-angle camera position, and his attention to the detail of social interaction between the generations, the subtle gradations in manners, mark him out as a great documenter of Japanese society at that time. Cutaway shots of factories, trains and the hustle and bustle of the city also situate the work in the post-war period. Because nearly everything is said with a smile and voices are never raised in anger, the final recognition of the daughter-in-law's kindness brings with it a release of emotion for character and spectator alike.
(Tokyo Monogatari)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 135m
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Cast: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara
Synopsis:
An elderly couple travel some distance to visit their grown-up children in Tokyo, but they come second place to the more pressing daily affairs of their offspring. Only the widow of their son missing in action takes the time and trouble to entertain them.
Review:
This long and detailed film, which gains power from its painstakingness and understatement, is in many ways a template for the later films of its director. His technique of filming dialogue exchanges front-on, his low-angle camera position, and his attention to the detail of social interaction between the generations, the subtle gradations in manners, mark him out as a great documenter of Japanese society at that time. Cutaway shots of factories, trains and the hustle and bustle of the city also situate the work in the post-war period. Because nearly everything is said with a smile and voices are never raised in anger, the final recognition of the daughter-in-law's kindness brings with it a release of emotion for character and spectator alike.
(Tokyo Monogatari)
Country: JAP
Technical: bw 135m
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Cast: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Setsuko Hara
Synopsis:
An elderly couple travel some distance to visit their grown-up children in Tokyo, but they come second place to the more pressing daily affairs of their offspring. Only the widow of their son missing in action takes the time and trouble to entertain them.
Review:
This long and detailed film, which gains power from its painstakingness and understatement, is in many ways a template for the later films of its director. His technique of filming dialogue exchanges front-on, his low-angle camera position, and his attention to the detail of social interaction between the generations, the subtle gradations in manners, mark him out as a great documenter of Japanese society at that time. Cutaway shots of factories, trains and the hustle and bustle of the city also situate the work in the post-war period. Because nearly everything is said with a smile and voices are never raised in anger, the final recognition of the daughter-in-law's kindness brings with it a release of emotion for character and spectator alike.