Tokyo Story

Somehow I haven’t gotten around to seeing any of the universally acclaimed film director Yasujiro Ozu’s films. I finally saw what is regarded as his masterpiece, Tokyo Story (1953). I think it might be useful to contrast his film with those of Akira Kurosawa, the Japanese film director whom I am most familiar with. First of all Ozu’s film (and from what I understand of his other films) is largely concerned with family dynamics. Tokyo Story is about the generation divide between parents and children-how time and other concerns drive them apart. An elderly couple arrives from the countryside to visit their children in Tokyo and are largely ignored by their children and they seem to be disconnected with their grandchildren as well. The selfish children are upset by the inconvenience of having their parents visit. The parents are disappointed by their children’s lack of success. I guess these themes are universal. I find Ozu’s style different from Kurosawa, Ozu uses a lot of low camera angles and doesn’t use wipes for his scene changes. But I think they share a sense of framing people appealingly in their scene compositions. All in all, I can see why it is often considered to be one of the top 10 films of all time. I watched the Criterion Collection two disc edition and it has lots of impressive extras like the informative commentary by film scholar David Desser. There are also two interesting documentaries and the second disc: I Lived, But…(1983) with interviews with several actors, actresses and staff. The second documentary, Talking With Ozu (1993), is a tribute from international directors like Paul Schrader, Claire Denis, and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. And there’s also an interesting essay by David Bordwell.