Flickers in Time

Tokyo Story (“Tôkyô monogatari”)
Yasujirô Ozu
1953/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
#257 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Multiple Viewings

Kyoko: Isn’t life disappointing?
Noriko: [smiles] Yes, it is.

This is one of my very favorite films by my very favorite director and I feel like I’m too close to it to find the right words to review it.  I love this and Ozu’s other films because they are unique in giving me a sort of nostalgia, like a bittersweet sadness for a time now lost.  Although I have no reason to be nostalgic for 1950’s Japan, Ozu shows us the core of family life, with its inevitable challenges, in a way that speaks to every time and place.   Ozu’s deliberate pacing and formal compositions encourage a contemplative attitude on the part of the audience, allowing our impressions to linger and evolve.

Shukichi (Ozu regular Chisu Ryu) and Tomi (Chieko Higashiyama) are an elderly couple who have not seen their scattered adult children for several years.  They eagerly set off by train to visit them in Osaka and Tokyo.  When they get to Tokyo, it gradually becomes clear that their son and daughter are too busy with their own lives to entertain their parents.    In contrast, Noriko, the widow of  a son who died in the war, (Setsuko Hara) takes time off from work and extends herself gladly to make her in-laws welcome.

Daughter Shige (Haruko Sugimura) is particularly ungracious and stingy toward her parents.  We learn that she has built up resentments from childhood at her mother’s weight and her father’s drinking.  Shige comes up with the idea of sending the old people to a beach resort to avoid having to take them places.  During his stay with Shige, Shukichi goes out on the town with old friends and gets thoroughly drunk.  It turns out all the old men are disappointed in their children but Shukichi reminds the others that children must be expected grow up and live their own lives, that is just the way life is.  Finally, the old couple decide to cut their visit short and head back for home in the country.

Tomi falls in ill on the train and the two spend a night at their younger son’s place in Osaka.  While there, they reflect that their children are a disappointment but still are better than most children.

After they arrive home, Tomi is stricken and becomes critically ill.  The clan gathers once again at their childhood home.  They grieve when Tomi dies yet revert to their old ways after the funeral, Shige asking for some of her mother’s clothes almost before the corpse is cold.

Kyoko, the couple’s youngest daughter who still lives at home, bitterly denounces her siblings as selfish.  The unselfish Noriko explains that it is natural that the older children have busy lives of their own and that eventually she, too, may need to think of herself first.  Life is disappointing but that is the way it is.

Shukishi urges Noriko to remarry and tells her she is a good woman who treated them better than their blood relations on the trip.  In tears, Noriko responds that she is not so good but is very lonely and at loose ends.  Kyoko has already left for work and Noriko now departs for Tokyo by train.  The film ends with Shukishi agreeing with a neighbor that stops by that life will be lonely now.

Ozu allows us to draw our own conclusions.  We are given ample space and time to get to know the characters.  Surely, we are meant to see that the Tokyo children treat their parents very badly but just as certainly we are meant to consider the parent’s acceptant response as admirable.  Life is disappointing, but it goes on.

Trailer