Tokyo Story
Directed by: Yasujiro Ozu
- cinematography
- ?
?
- cinematography
Movie Score: B
Film Score: A
Overall Impression: A-
I try to watch a film on my own terms. I try to do as little reading about the film itself as I possibly can before viewing. That way, my perceptions are not colored by what other's think. I want to see "genius" for myself, and I want to be the one that ultimately decides whether or not I want to accept that "genius".
This film marks a lot of firsts for me. It's the first Japanese film that isn't anime, doesn't involve a rubber monster, isn't Kurosawa, and doesn't involve ninjas jumping out of the shadows. In other words, a pretty tall order and rather daunting task if I may say so.
Tokyo Story's story and plot are simple enough to follow. We're concerned with two grandparents who are on they're way to visit their children in Tokyo. They leave behind a daughter (Kyoko?) at the home. Evidently, they have three children, three sons and a daugther. Two of these children actually live in Tokyo. One of their sons is a suburban doctor who is a pediatrician. The daugther owns/runs a hair salon (if that is a hair salon). The other son...well, he's the only one that's not in Tokyo, and he lives in Osaka and has a desk job. There's the third son (second oldest?) who died during the war, but his widowed wife is left behind, and this daughter-in-law is very close to this family.
Evidently, the grandparents' visit is a nuisance and bothersome invasion to all but the daughter-in-law. The doctor son was going to show them around and even eat at a department store, but was called away at the last moment before he could take them. The doctor's kids (the grandchildren) fuss over not being able to go, especially the elder one. The young one just seemingly avoids any attention from the grandparents.
There are little snippets that reveal exactly what goes through the children's heads, particularly the daughter salon worker. She doesn't want to spend money on them, and she finds her parents' visit extremely intrusive.
It seems the only person to find anytime for the grandparents is their daugther-in-law. She asks for a day off of work to show them around Tokyo.
At some point, the children don't want to have anything to do with them, so they send them off to a spa.....that's geared more towards the younger crowd.
And I'll conclude my synopsis there because this is a film you need to experience first hand to appreciate these things.
I noted earlier that I try to read as little as possible about a particular film so that I may view a film on my own terms. That still remains true, but when a film receives as much praise as this one, a few eyebrows raise and few ears perk. So I did a little research. Not much though.
There's no doubt that this is one strong illustration of generational conflict/divide. This point is clearly illustrated across the film, and even in subtle ways. Note the contrast between the relative tranquility of the grandparents' home and the harsh smoke stacks that seemingly pop up every now and then.
We have children that do not welcome the visit of the grandparents, and this is clearly illustrated by Shige. She even chastises her husband (?) at one point for buying delicious cakes when she thinks rice cakes will do.
The grandchildren aren't angels either. Now I know enough about Asian culture (I should by this point
) to know that that there is a premium and emphasis based on respecting elders. It's clearly obvious that the children don't, and neither the grandchildren. I'd go so far as to say they were insolent.
There's a poignancy involved with the way the children treat their parents. It kind of makes me happy to know I will never treat my parents that way. It wasn't abundantly clear to me whether or not Ozu tried to put the blame on something as to why these children act that way, but it was evidently clear that regardless of your life or circumstances, you should never forget the simple things. The daughter-in-law treats grandpa and grandma better than even their own children, in spite of what she says about herself.
I noted that the cinematography was good. I don't remember where in the hell I read this, but Ozu is one of the directors that likes to violate the 180 degrees rule when it comes to camera placement. Instead, he uses the entire 360 degrees when filming conversations. It makes it a lot more interesting and feel like we're right in the middle of the conversation. Kind of like
That 70's Show.
But I also noted this film was a lot of firsts for me. This film has quite possibly the most static camera work I've ever seen. No tracking shots, no pans, no tilts, no zoom-in's, no zoom-out's. Even "staple" shots of exteriors don't move. It never moves except for that one pan across the wall where we see the grandparents on the lawn of Noriko's home. I honestly have no clue why Ozu does this, and I found myself getting extremely bored on more than one occasion. I had no idea how much camera movement there was in other films until I saw this.
I'm going to have to get a second viewing of this film, but it'll have to wait. There's
Rules of the Game and
Throne of Blood I want to check out.
I don't doubt that TS is great. After all, the themes and manner of presenting (except for the static camera work) those themes are highly universal and still apply today, especially the problems that arise from the generation gap. However, I don't know if it is anywhere near the brilliance of
Citizen Kan and
Vertigo. I'd put
The Passion of Joan of Arc in front of TS.
