TOKYO STORY (1953) FILM ANALYSIS

TOKYO STORY (1953)

The Tokyo Story, directed by Yasujirō Ozu, is a timeless classic and is widely considered a masterpiece of Japanese cinema. Even though the film has a minimalistic story, this film has turned out to be a magnificent one. In this film, Ozu contrasts the concerns and distractions of both the younger and the older generation with a gentle sadness and a wry insight. Despite being regarded as the best achievement of Ozu’s career, Tokyo Story did not receive the title of being a masterpiece immediately. Released in 1953, the movie took several years to gain recognition and distribution around the world. It was initially considered as “Too Japanese” for the worldwide market. The film is basically divided into two parts. The first one focuses on how the elderly couple goes to visit their children and grandchildren in Tokyo. They arrived in Tokyo hoping to spend time with their eldest son Koichi, their daughter Shige, and their widowed daughter-in-law Noriko (Haruko Harako). Their daughter and son were both busy with their own affairs and had no time to accompany their parents. They entrusted the task of sightseeing to Kiko who was happy to please them. After the death of her husband, she led a peaceful and lonely life and was very happy to spend time with her in-laws. The second part focuses on how Tomi’s death impacts the rest of the family. Sensing the are a burden, the couple decides to head home earlier than they had planned, but Tomi suddenly becomes ill on the return journey.

The characters in Tokyo Story gained our sympathy. These characters helped us understand the painful necessities in life as well as the joy of the mundane. Every character plays some other role in the whole drama, but Kiko’s character is a bit different and important. Kiko is the only protagonist who has no blood relationship with other people. Because of her sympathy for her in-laws, she can be regarded as the most generous and unhelpful person among young people.

Yasujirō Ozu approaches filmmaking from a humanistic perspective. Tokyo Story simply isn’t a film about a family, but a film about the cycle of life and how time passes by. Ozu distills the natural rhythm of life in this film. Families breaking up, children drifting away from their parents, all if these are some elements of our lives that each and every one of us can relate to. The characters that appear in this movie are not strange. They are our parents, our children, and ourselves because we can relate to them at some of the other points in our lives. There is something so special about Tokyo Story that even after decades of its release, it continues to affect audiences around the world. Tokyo Story teaches us a very important lesson in life that “Life is not just about sadness and pain but it's about the importance of letting go.”