Dir. Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1953, 135mins
Cast: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Toru Abu
Review by Christopher Upton
The inevitability of old age doesn't make it any easier to come to terms with. Tokyo Story is a meditation on the subjects of old age and death, and they're made all the more upsetting because the director doesn't allow his characters the option of last goodbyes. This realist approach to the matter however is what makes it so powerful.
A mother and father are off to visit their children in Tokyo, something they've never done before thanks to their distance from the Japanese capital. Upon arrival it's difficult for the children to find time for their parents and the couple spend their time split between their son's widow or in the father's case, drinking heavily. Unfortunately time is short and while they are leaving Tokyo, travelling and ill health leads to the mother's death, throwing the children into mourning and leaving the father alone.
In post-war Japanese cinema the subject of mortality permeates a lot of the productions but unlike films such as Hiroshima Mon Amour, where the history-centric love story was unique to this part of the world, Tokyo Story is a tale that doesn't necessarily need to be confined to the Pacific island. That having been said, without the country's history it would not be anywhere near as richly layered.
Ozu could have easily decorated the screen with images of Japan's past- its temples and gardens usually succeed in beautifying any Japanese montage. Instead, all the images are of a new industrialised Japan. Like Truffaut's alternate Eiffel Tower shots at the beginning of The 400 Blows there is an important distinction between the image of a place and the reality. Like the couple's children, new Japan is too busy expanding to be able to pay as much attention to its heritage as perhaps is necessary.
The children all have their own lives, and like the regeneration of Tokyo around them, there are a lot of things to worry about which doesn't afford them the luxury of stopping and looking back. This rushing sensation has the effect of making the children appear selfish, when their parents come to stay. The daughter cannot offer them her time or a place to stay, the son is busy tending to patients or helping his unruly children and the only one who can make time for them is the widow of their eldest son.
While it does look at the selfishness of the children, it doesn't paint it without reason. Not only have they got jobs and families but the father's history of alcoholic abuse still pains the children even now. They don't have the time to deal with these situations on top of the ones with which they are already coping - a fact which rings uncomfortably true.
Where this film is strongest, and where it holds its greatest emotional punch, is when it identifies the fact that this is going to happen to everyone. You can't always be looking out for other people, life needs to move forwards and as the film subtlety conveys, each person has their own burdens. This is what makes the film's finale so upsetting; the goodbye was just like any other, not providing the huge emotional exit normally reserved for onscreen deaths. As such the family are thrown into cycles of questioning whether they were neglectful and asking what they could have done while they had the chance.
Tokyo Story is great because it doesn't expect anything more of the onscreen protagonists than is reasonable. It deftly conveys the children's apparent selfishness, and in the same stroke explains why this is so, never really condemning them for having their own lives. It's a stunning and moving analysis of family life, without undue sentiment and without unfair condemnation. There are not a lot of films even today, which manage to tread this difficult balance so well and achieve so much from it.
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