Eiga Reviews (the '50s): Tokyo Story - The Criterion Collection #217 (1953)

Entertaining, heartbreaking and relatable, I feel that Ozu Yasujiro’s 1953 film “Tokyo Story” is a cinematic masterpiece that many people raised by loving parents can relate to forever. And a film that can easily make someone make a difference or consider the thought of spending time with one’s parents before its too late.

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TITLE: Tokyo Story – The Criterion Collection #217 (東京物語)

YEAR OF FILM: 1953

DURATION: 136 Minutes

BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (1:33:1 Aspect Ratio), Black and White, Monaural Japanese with English Subtitles

COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection

RELEASE DATE: November 19, 2013

Directed by Ozu Yasujiro

Written by Noda Kogo, Ozu Yasujiro

Produced by Yamamoto Takeshi

Music by Saito Takanobu

Cinematography by Atsuta Yuharu

Edited by Hamamura Yoshiyasu

Production Design by Hamada Tatsuo

Art Direction by Hamada Tatsuo

Costume Design by Saito Taizo

Starring:

Ryu Chishu as Hirayama Shukichi

Higashiyama Chieko as Hiryama Tomi

Hara Setsuko as Hirayama Noriko

Sugimura Haruko as Kaneko Shige

Yamamura So as Hirayama Koichi

Miyake Kuniko as Hirayama Fumiko

Kagawa Kyoko as Hirayama Kyoko

Tono Eijiro as Numata Sanpei

Nakamura Nobuo as Kaneko Kurazo

A profoundly stirring evocation of elemental humanity and universal heartbreak, Tokyo Story is the crowning achievement of the unparalleled Yasujiro Ozu (Late Spring). The film, which follows an aging couple as they leave their rural village to visit their two married children in bustling postwar Tokyo, surveys the rich and complex world of family life with the director’s customary delicacy and incisive perspective on social mores. Featuring lovely performances from Ozu regulars Chishu Ryu (There Was a Father) and Setsuko Hara (Late Autumn), Tokyo Story plumbs and deepens the director’s recurring themes of generational conflict, creating what is without question one of cinema’s mightiest masterpieces.

With the 1937 American film “Make Way for Tomorrow” resonating with screenwriter Noda Kogo, Noda suggested it to filmmaker Ozu Yasujiro. And “Tokyo Monogatari” (Tokyo Story) was created and would become known as an Ozu cinematic masterpiece.

In the original Leo McCarey film, the film showcased elderly parents who had to go through so much in order to raise their children when they are young. But when it’s reverse and the children have to take care of their parents, none are willing to take on that responsibility. And for both Lucy and Victor, they know that. They know it’s an inconvenience and they know that what is going to happen next in their life, they know they may have to take on these challenges alone rather than together.

McCarey’s really struck a chord with the audience and because of the film’s nature, released during a time of the Great Depression, Americans were just not in the mood to deal with a realistic and heavy issue, no matter how critically acclaimed the film was. It’s the type of film that many people just don’t want to deal with until that time comes.

Now there are evident differences between American and Japanese culture, so how would Ozu Yasujiro’s “Tokyo Story” be different?

Suffice to say, the film would be memorable to cineaste worldwide, making it Ozu’s best known film.

While the film earned actress Sugimura Haruko a “Mainichi Film Award for Best Supporting Actress”, the film resonated with audiences winning the Sutherland Trophy for the “Most Original and Creative Film” and receive rave reviews introducing people to Japanese cinema that was not about samurai or ghosts or during a traditional Japanese setting. It was a modern film for its time taking on family relationships.

And the film would receive a remake in 2013 courtesy of legendary filmmaker Yamada Yoji (best known for the “Otoko wa Tsurai yo” film series and “Samurai Trilogy”).

The film was released on Blu-ray in the U.S. courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

“Tokyo Story” revolves around parents, Hirayama Shukichi (portrayed by Ryu Chishu) and wife Hirayama Tomi (portrayed by Higashiyama Chieko), who live in Onomichi (which is based in Hiroshima prefecture) with their daughter, Kyoko (portrayed by Kagawa Kyoko) who helps take care of them, while working as a teacher.

The couple want to visit their children, their eldest son Koichi (portrayed by Yamamura So), a physician. Their eldest daughter Shige (portrayed by Sugimura Haruko) who runs a hair salon, their young son Keizo and their deceased son Shoji’s wife, Noriko (portrayed by Hara Setsuko).

When the Hirayama’s first visit, they are greeted by their children in Tokyo. But the vacation to visit their children is not what the couple has expected.

The Hirayama’s find out that while their son Koichi is a physician, it’s in suburb of Tokyo, far from the lively city that they imagined and he’s runs a small clinic. Their grandchildren show no respect to their grandparents, barely even talking about them. And we eventually learn that Koichi is so busy, he can’t even take out his parents and show them around Tokyo. His wife Fumiko is busy with the children and so, Fumiko calls upon her sister-in-law Noriko, who graciously takes the family on a sight-seeing trip throughout Tokyo.

While the Hirayama’s are grateful, they know that Noriko still loves her deceased husband and they see photos around her home and want her to be happy and find a new husband. But Noriko is still trying to adjust.

When the Hirayama’s want to stay with Shige, she is busy as a hairdresser and when her husband wants to give them pastries, Shige feels its too expensive for them and instead of having her parents stay with her, she and Koichi feel its best to send the couple to the hot springs in Atami.

Realizing that the only true person who is willing to be with them is not their children by blood but their daughter-in-law.

But for both Shukichi and Tomi, they start to realize that their children are too busy to spend time with them and as the couple try to make every attempt to spend time with their children, they feel they have become a burden.

VIDEO:

“Tokyo Story” is presented in 1080p High Definition, black and white (1:33:1 aspect ratio). This new transfer on Blu-ray looks incredible compared to its previous Criterion Collection DVD counterpart. Picture quality is actually very good for a film created back in 1953 courtesy of the restoration done by Shochiku Co. Ltd. and performed by Imagica Corp. and Imagica West Corp. in Japan, which received additional support in the restoration process from Reliance MediaWorks in India.

But watching it in HD, the detail of the film is impressive. Whites and grays were were well-contrast and black levels were nice and deep. The picture quality is clean and contrast is stunning. The Blu-ray release of “Tokyo Story” is fantastic and fans of the film will definitely see the improved transfer to be worth the upgrade from the original DVD to Blu-ray.

According to the Criterion Collection, the high-definition digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on an IMAGER XE film scanner from a new 35mm interpositive. The original negative no longer exists, so the new interpositive created for scanning was made from the internegative, the most original film element available.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

As for the audio, audio is presented in Japanese Monaural. Dialogue is clear and I heard no audio problems during my viewing of the film. According to Criterion, the soundtrack was mastered at 24-Bit from a 35 mm optical track print. Pops, crackle, hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated workstation.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Tokyo Story” comes with the following special features:

Audio commentary featuring Yasujiro Ozu scholar David Desser, editor of Ozu’s “Tokyo Story”
I Lived, But . . . – A two-hour documentary from 1983 about Ozu’s life and career, featuring interviews with critics and former cast and crew members
Talking with Ozu – A forty-minute tribute to the director from 1993, featuring the reflections of filmmakers Lindsay Anderson, Claire Denis, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Aki Kaurismäki, Stanley Kwan, Paul Schrader, and Wim Wenders
Documentary from 1988 about actor Chishu Ryu’s career at Shochiku’s Ofuna studios, featuring a lengthy interview with Ryu

EXTRAS:

“Tokyo Story – The Criterion Collection #217″ comes with five page spread with an essay by David Bordwell, professor of cinema studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “Ozu and the Poetics of Cinema”.

Yasujiro Ozu is one of the world’s beloved directors. Having made many films since the 1920’s up to his final film “An Autumn Afternoon” in 1962, his works have been appreciated by viewers and critics for his family comedies but also his serious family storylines such as “Late Spring”, “Early Summer” and “Tokyo Story” (to name a few).

Having watched and reviewed “Make Way for Tomorrow”, watching “Tokyo Story” many times in my lifetime, the film will no doubt make many think about the circle of life and the essence of family.

For those who have watched an Ozu Yasujiro film, know how family plays a big part in Ozu’s films. But where many of Ozu’s films focus on the direct family and the challenges, may it be a husband and wife and children encountering financial hardship, bullying, the welcoming of new technology and the films were all relatable.

But with “Tokyo Story”, for me it resonates strongly because having watched this film when I was younger, watching this film again as I’m older, I noticed that the impact of this film grows stronger.

Within Asian families, we are taught the importance of family, respect for elders and also the expectancy of taking care of your parents as the grow older.

Parents sacrificing for their children is often taught. Getting the children prepared to enter a good school, have a good career, it’s always part of the broader plan, with the expectancy of parents being taken care of in the end.

This was ingrained to me with each conversation with my grandfather and grandmother, and to this day, I always try to balance time of what I can spend with my mother and family along with work.

But as I watched this film, as a person who has studied Japanese culture and traveled throughout Japan, I feel that I started seeing this film much differently when I watched it long ago.

“Tokyo Story” is a film that was made not long after World War II and life during the early ’50s. One must know that Japan’s economy flourished from 1870 through 1940 and after World War II, its economy was reduced to nothing and they had to restart from the beginning and would take years to recover until 1956. Through 1945-1956, it was a recovery period.

Many wanted to look for jobs and while there are those who stayed because Hiroshima was home, others fled to other areas of Japan. In this case, the Hirayama children moved to Tokyo.

With the Hirayama’s, Sukichi and Tomi are enjoying life but want to see their children in Tokyo, one has to realize that Sukichi and Tomi are in Hiroshima prefecture, the prefecture is where the first atomic bomb was dropped, millions died and the rebuilding effort was long. While Onomichi (where the Hirayama’s live) is an hour and 17 minutes away, the distance from Onomichi to Tokyo is nearly 9 hours away by car in 2021, 5 hours via shinkansen technology. So, with technology of 1950’s, that would take days from them to travel to Tokyo. So, this was a long trip and probably not the most comfortable back in the day.

Now, the Hirayama’s know that their children are busy. Discovering their eldest son runs a small clinic, he realize that his son did not work in a major hospital. He’s a doctor which is admirable but not what he expected. While the image of Tokyo is metropolitan cities, go to western Tokyo and you realize there is a difference in living standard from those who live out in the country/mountainous regions and those who live in the city.

While working hard is in Japan is well-known, the attitude of Japanese towards work is much worse today, as Japanese are expected to work long hours to meet deadlines and the tragic part of this is those who feel no way out and unfortunately take their lives. And because it’s a group mentality vs. structured individualism, attitudes of Japan during the late 40s and 50s is to work for survival, work for recovery and from that point for decades, work has become the dominant structure, and for Japan, that is working long hours, hardly any breaks or vacations. And the feeling of guilt of taking breaks is prevalent among workers in Japan because it affects the others.

While there is no doubt a difference in modern Japan vs. recovery Japan, watching “Tokyo Story”, I can see the Japanese mentality of working taking precedence.

And this the highlight of the film.

With Leo McCarey’s film, “Make Way for Tomorrow”, this was after the market collapse of 1929, the Cooper’s are losing their home to foreclosure and can’t find work because the husband is not finding luck of getting a job due to his age. Their adult children learn they must take turns of taking care of their parents, while not having a large place to house them and thus, the children discuss having one parent living one area, the other living in another area with their children. And thus, the emotional heartbreak of breaking two loving parents because the children find taking care of their parents to become too burdensome.

With Ozu Yasujiro’s film, there is no way Japanese parents would be split up in a film. The thought is quite disrespectful if children’s force their parents to do such a thing. The attitudes of the American children towards their parents is also disrespectful.

For “Tokyo Story”, the children look at their parents as burdensome but their children were busy with work. Its understood that the children are busy with work, but could they have spared more time being with their parents, even though the workday was over? For Japanese, its understandable if one was too busy during work hours, but after work, there was no effort.

The only person who showed any effort was their daughter-in-law Noriko, and she’s not their blood relative. But yet, she is willing to take time off from work and do what they can to ensure that her in-laws are happy. For me Noriko, was not just a kind person but also I felt that the bond that kept her close to her deceased husband is his parents. The Hirayama’s saw how she works hard but also has her deceased husband’s photos throughout their home. And they want her to move on, meet another man and get married. And those words, each time she hears it, you can see how it affects her.

I also feel the role was no doubt a winning role for actress Hara Setsuko, who appeared earlier in Ozu’s 1949 film “Late Spring”.

In “Late Spring”, the character Noriko (same name in “Tokyo Story” but different character), is a devoted daughter who prefers to stay home and take care of her father, despite the urging of family members to get married. In the 1951 film “Early Summer”, she plays another character named Noriko, who wants to get married, but wants to do it without her family’s approval. And in 1953’s “Tokyo Story”, her devotion to her deceased husband and wanting to be there for her in-laws.

Nevertheless, Hara Setsuko playing these Noriko roles made her one of the most well-liked actresses at the time and during her peak as an actress, when Ozu died in 1963, despite her extreme popularity, Hara also quit acting and like other Hollywood starlets who wanted to stay away from the media, Hara went into seclusion and never did any more interviews.

Needless to say, I watch “Tokyo Story” as a film with different eyes. When I was younger, I never wanted to spend that much time with my parents, because I wanted to live my own life. But as I got older and getting married, I found myself wanting to spend time with my parents and even my grandparents. The experience that I have with my child (and how expensive things can get), I can only see the hardships and sacrifice my parents did for us.

That time is no doubt golden. You appreciate those moments and that you lived life with them, having no regrets.

With “Tokyo Story”, the film ends with the viewer thinking, have I had to those moments, do I have any regrets? If you have parents who did so much for you, do what you can to spend that time, any way you can. May it be visiting them, talking on the phone or even through today’s streaming services, it’s one thing to be busy for work, but there are enough time during the day to let that let your parents know that you love them.

I would imagine for many people in today’s world, they spend more time on social media than communicating with their own parents.

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