Tokyo Story (1953) (Not Rated)Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
Starring: Chishu Ryu, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura, Setsuko Hara
Daddy Says:
This is the Japanese movie with subtitles that I was going to watch with my daughter before she went off to summer camp. I held off and waited until she got home to watch it for the first time. And I've got a feeling that our views of this movie will be very different from each other. Perhaps she'll need to revisit this film after she becomes a parent someday.
Tokyo Story follows two grandparents as they plan to go to Tokyo to visit their grown children. When they arrive, everything seems fine. There are no arguments, everyone is very polite to each other. But we gradually see that the arrival of their parents has put a strain on their children's lives. The adult children feel the need to show their parents around and do things with them, but their lives are just too busy. The person who shows the most feeling for them, and takes the time out of her own busy schedule to spend time with them, is their widowed daughter-in-law. That a person who isn't even a blood relative is the nicest to them isn't lost on the elderly couple. They see their own children as disappointments, but take pleasure in the fact that things could be worse.
Then a tragedy strikes. It is the kind of tragedy that brings people together during a time of need, but again due to busy schedules, not all of them are able to be there. After spending so much time with these people, the loss has a profound affect on us as we watch the different ways the family deals with it. This could easily sound like the movie is some kind of soap opera, but at no time does it play like one.
I had never seen a movie by director Yasujiro Ozu before this one. I've since read that he likes to film his movies with a stationary camera positioned about the height of a person's waist, and that's true for this film. Only once did I notice the camera make any kind of movement at all, and I believe Ozu did this intentionally. It comes at a time when the couple make the decision to leave Tokyo and return to their home. They walk off the beach and the camera dollies along with them, following them on this new direction.
There are many times throughout the film where characters have a conversation in a room, then exit the room, while the scene stays on-screen for a few more seconds. While that would seem to go against the traditional rules of editing (i.e. cutting when the scene is finished), by leaving us in the room for a few more seconds, it makes us feel like we are really in the room, not just watching scenes unfold in front of us. We become a part of the family by lingering in an empty room where seconds before something was happening. It's a neat trick, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
E.E. Cummings is quoted as saying "I would rather teach one bird how to sing than ten thousand stars how not to shine". It's one of my favorite quotes, and I'm not sure I understand all of its meaning. But I get a feeling from it, and I get that same feeling from certain films I watch. So many movies are all about "sound and fury, signifying nothing" to quote Shakespeare. Tokyo Story tries to teach one bird how to sing.
Rating for Tokyo Story: *****.
Tokyo Story follows two grandparents as they plan to go to Tokyo to visit their grown children. When they arrive, everything seems fine. There are no arguments, everyone is very polite to each other. But we gradually see that the arrival of their parents has put a strain on their children's lives. The adult children feel the need to show their parents around and do things with them, but their lives are just too busy. The person who shows the most feeling for them, and takes the time out of her own busy schedule to spend time with them, is their widowed daughter-in-law. That a person who isn't even a blood relative is the nicest to them isn't lost on the elderly couple. They see their own children as disappointments, but take pleasure in the fact that things could be worse.
Then a tragedy strikes. It is the kind of tragedy that brings people together during a time of need, but again due to busy schedules, not all of them are able to be there. After spending so much time with these people, the loss has a profound affect on us as we watch the different ways the family deals with it. This could easily sound like the movie is some kind of soap opera, but at no time does it play like one.
I had never seen a movie by director Yasujiro Ozu before this one. I've since read that he likes to film his movies with a stationary camera positioned about the height of a person's waist, and that's true for this film. Only once did I notice the camera make any kind of movement at all, and I believe Ozu did this intentionally. It comes at a time when the couple make the decision to leave Tokyo and return to their home. They walk off the beach and the camera dollies along with them, following them on this new direction.
There are many times throughout the film where characters have a conversation in a room, then exit the room, while the scene stays on-screen for a few more seconds. While that would seem to go against the traditional rules of editing (i.e. cutting when the scene is finished), by leaving us in the room for a few more seconds, it makes us feel like we are really in the room, not just watching scenes unfold in front of us. We become a part of the family by lingering in an empty room where seconds before something was happening. It's a neat trick, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
E.E. Cummings is quoted as saying "I would rather teach one bird how to sing than ten thousand stars how not to shine". It's one of my favorite quotes, and I'm not sure I understand all of its meaning. But I get a feeling from it, and I get that same feeling from certain films I watch. So many movies are all about "sound and fury, signifying nothing" to quote Shakespeare. Tokyo Story tries to teach one bird how to sing.
Rating for Tokyo Story: *****.
Daughter Says:
First off, I must say that this movie was obviously not worth anything above a four, because I couldn’t stay awake long enough to see the end of the movie. Maybe that’s why I don’t care for this movie, but it was awful. I don’t think it could have made my opinion any different, but oh well.
Tokyo Story was a disaster to start with in my opinion. It had two of my least favorite things in this movie: subtitles and zero color. Tokyo Story is a black and white drama in another language. I was having trouble understanding the film before the movie even began.
If Tokyo Story wasn’t already on my bad side, it was straight out confusing. I couldn’t tell who was who in the story line. I got as far as figuring out who the mom and dad was, but other than that I didn’t get it. Apparently, some son of theirs died and so his wife is their only memory of him or something. It was just a really screwed up family.
Another problem I had with this story was the dialogue. It felt very awkard. It gave me the impression it was being read and not felt by the actors. The characters and what they were saying just didn’t seem to match up. I don’t know if you know what I’m saying but it just didn’t flow right. It might have just been me. After all I did have to read the dialogue.
It wasn’t just the dialogue that drove me crazy. The actors' faces didn’t match up to the story line either. Like one of the relatives was always smiling when she was depressed. Whenever they talked about her dead husband she never showed sadness. It didn’t really make much sense to me. I also couldn’t quite grasp when someone was being rude or generous. I couldn’t figure out how I was supposed to feel about what was going on the screen.
So, I’m not going to say I enjoyed it because that would be a lie. It wasn’t one of the best movies I’ve watched in the past. If you like odd foreign films that you have to read to really understand then this is for you. It has no action or comedy so, if you like those kinds of things then don’t check this film out. But it’s really up to you.
Rating for Tokyo Story: *1/2.
Interesting insight into the decline of civilization in America.
ReplyDeleteBack in February, I made the family watch "Everybody's Fine" with Robert DeNiro. It would have been interesting if the movie had gone down this road. It might have been so much better. It touch at it, but it didn't actually GO there. I think this might be where the movie makers wanted it to go, but for whatever reason they got lost on the trip.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. Wong, and it might be a true statement for the world in general. We are "too busy" for our families, "too busy" for our parents, and "too busy" for our children. It is interesting that we can "connect" and feel empathy with characters in a film, but react the same sad way with our own families. Not enough money, not enough time, just can't do it right now, maybe next year. And my husband and mine favorite line (especially with our son) "We'll see.", which really is a not so nice way of saying probable not.
I'm not certain what Cynthia agrees with me about, but perhaps relevant to her thoughts about parents and children is the 1937 film by Leo McCarey called Make Way for Tomorrow.
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