Tokyo Story

This film is not currently available on DVD. Film Description Voted one of the ten best films of all time, Ozu's masterpiece is an emotionally breathtaking and poignant portrayal of the frailty of family ties, telling of an elderly couple who visit their grown-up son and daughter in Tokyo. The children see them as an unwelcome interruption of their busy lives and only their widowed daughter-in-law treats them with kindness and respect. Truly a five-star film.

Film Details Director Yasujiro Ozu Starring Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama   Country Japan Language JAPANESE   Year 1953

Reviews & Articles

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Review by Wolfram Parge on 5th January 2004

Pure human love and warmth fill the screen in Ozu's incredibly heart-warming film of tender family life. When the grandparents of a doctor's family come to visit them in urban Tokyo, they are seen as an unwelcome intrusion into their children's lives. The elderly couple is rushed around and given only their half-hearted attention, before being sent to a health-spa. Only the family's widowed daughter-in-law shows kindness and appreciation by devoting herself to them, and Ozu conjures one of cinema's great magical moments when the grandparents embark with their daughter-in-law on a day-trip to Tokyo. Here they are truly happy, walking on foot and riding in a tram, as they marvel and gaze in sublime wonder at the sights of the beautiful city. So rarely has a film so many soul-filled moments which will make you cry and cherish in abundance, the beauty of life before realizing that the fleeting moment has gone.

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Review by Doug Cummings on 4th August 2008

Masterpieces are regularly cited for their extravagant qualities, but has there ever been a better example of the riches to be found in subtle and refined cinema than Yasujiro Ozu’s masterpiece, Tokyo Story (1958). Its emotional depth is attained through the slightest elements—the various crouched sitting positions of an elderly couple among their distracted adult children, the couple in isolation gazing at the sea, knowing smiles and bitter tears—arranged into a breathtaking purity of expression. Inspired by Leo McCarey’s sublime Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), Ozu and co-writer Kogo Noda re-tell the tale of the inevitable fragmentation of family life, foregoing McCarey’s Depression-era desperation and emphasizing the quiet regret of Japan’s postwar modernization. They also expertly configure the drama for their favorite actors, including Chishu Ryu, Setsuko Hara, and Haruko Sugimura, all titans of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. Above all, Tokyo Story is a film in which viewers recognizes its truthfulness to life and fully absorb its dramatic implications (through Ozu’s famously contemplative aesthetic) as a deeply compassionate experience.

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Article - "Yasujiro Ozu" by Paul Willemen
Monday 1st December 2003

There are a handful of cineastes about whom one can safely say that if you have not seen some of their films, you have missed out on the best of twentieth century cinema. Ozu is a prominent member of that small group. He is, still to date, quite simply Japan’s greate...  View article in full

Article - "23 Must-See Films" by John Davies
Thursday 1st January 2004

23. PIERROT LE FOU (GODARD, 1965)


A delight for intellectuals, hedonists and video store film geeks-turned-director alike, here's the quintessential Godard; less famous than the groundbreaking Breathless, less masterfully controlled than...  View article in full

Article - "Born To Die Tomorrow" by Thomas Krarup
Saturday 1st May 1999

Take a trip to any large city in Japan, and the initial impression, despite the bustle, is one of order and control; a Confucian sense of things being how and where they should be. But look away a moment from the mask – hear instead its confession, and the conflict b...  View article in full

Article - "Yasujiro Ozu - The Noriko Trilogy" by David Parkinson
Friday 29th October 2004

Yasujiro Ozu was unique. He employed an essentially experimental style within the constraints of the Japanese zaibatsu or studio system. Moreover, he also discussed the problems of ordinary `salarymen' and their families with a Zen humanism that gave his canon an acu...  View article in full

Collections & Lists

This film is part of the following Film Collections

Sight and Sound Critics Choice 2002

Including: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Andrei Rublev, Au Hasard Balthazar, Bicycle Thieves, Breathless (Godard, 1959), City Lights, Fanny and Alexander, Fellinis 8 1/2, Intolerance, Ivan The Terrible (Parts 1 & 2).

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Best In East by Idris Babur

Movies rising in the East casting their light in every dimension.

Films i wish others loved more. by Shane

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One hundred cinematic masterworks that are beloved by my wasted little heart. I implore you to check them all out asap. (Also, allow me to pimp http://filmislove.blogspot.com - thanks!)

Time Out Top 100 Movies by claudia

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