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Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story (1953)

November. 03,1953
|
8.1
| Drama

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

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SpuffyWeb
1953/11/03

Sadly Over-hyped

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Actuakers
1953/11/04

One of my all time favorites.

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Bereamic
1953/11/05

Awesome Movie

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Logan
1953/11/06

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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Vonia
1953/11/07

Tokyo Story (Japanese: Tôkyô monogatari) (1953) An earnest story, Parents' final visit with Ungrateful children. Elegiacally shot, Timeless tale with much to teach. I tried really tried, To love this critic's darling. Though praised Ozu's art, Pendulum's steadfast slow pace, Characters hard to relate. Somonka is a form of poetry that is essentially two tanka poems (the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format), the second stanza a response to the first. Traditionally, each is a love letter and it requires two authors, but sometimes a poet takes on two personas. My somonka will be a love/hate letter to this film? #Somonka #PoemReview

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classicsoncall
1953/11/08

I don't know if it has to do with some of the translation into English, but some of the dialog in this film seems to me to be plainly offensive. For example, when the old woman Tomi Hirayama (Chieko Higashiyama) speaks to her daughter-in-law Noriko (Setsuko Hara), who's husband, the older woman's son, had died, she makes the remark "What a treat to sleep in my dead son's bed". What??!! I thought that was terribly insensitive.Or when the family members discuss the mother's passing, Shige (Haruko Sugimura) states that she wishes the old man had died first. She qualified her statement with a logical reason, but gee, that just sounded so awful bad, but in her case, Shige had already established that she wasn't very politically correct among her family members.And then there's the old man himself, Shukichi (Chishû Ryû), who attempts to convince his daughter-in-law Noriko to remarry. With seeming indifference to the death of his own son a year earlier, he says "Forget about Shoji, he's dead." Do you think Noriko had to be reminded of that depressing fact? I know this, a movie is getting to me when I have to get up and pace around the room in order to force myself to stay with it. I pretty much understand what the director was trying to achieve here by showing the indifference siblings can show toward their elderly parents. How they'd rather not be bothered unless there's something in it for them. And obviously I'm at a disadvantage by not knowing the Japanese culture and it's approach to the concept of dying. But this just didn't strike me as being the noteworthy film it's hailed to be with it's position in the IMDb rating system. Sometimes I find a second viewing of a film to help with my appreciation of the effort, but this one I'll be giving a pass.One final observation - what's the obsession with fanning one's self throughout the picture?

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thinbeach
1953/11/09

My title may sound like an oxymoron, yet I can think of no more fitting way to describe Tokyo Story. The weighted themes on death and the separation of children from parents, and the clearly fractured relationships between characters, are ripe for the screens of your next soap opera; yet it is handled so delicately, so subtly, that for a large portion many may complain there isn't drama enough.Parents take a long train journey to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their children are for the most part polite and accommodating, yet so busy with employment they are unable to spend any quality time together, and privately view their parents presence as a burden. The pace is unhurried, and to the detriment of entertainment, conversations are carried out with a realistic mundane-ness. As the selfishness behind the facade of mannered conversation is slowly revealed, this approach becomes a powerful tool to reflect on the sadder aspects of family relations. And where typical melodramas may rush to have characters verbalise their upset, and make a mockery of it in the process, Tokyo Story manages to reveal that upset in a manner largely unspoken, and far more evocative because of it. With the films title, and many location cutaways, the younger generations busyness and neglect of their elders in a large city may also be seen as a metaphor for modern life's alienation and neglect of values. They do not mean harm, but Tokyo Story shows its heart by being a melancholy display on what is lost.All things considered, Tokyo Story is an ode to cherish human relationships, and a critique on human frailty and modern life. It is a sad and touching film, but meanders very slowly, particularly at the beginning.

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hhg2
1953/11/10

I have always considered myself a film buff but I just didn't get Tokyo Story. I've enjoyed silent films and "art" films, but this 2+ hour long examination of an elderly couple visiting the big city of Tokyo to visit many of their children and in-laws was painful to watch. I clicked on the "spoiler alert" box but there is really nothing that can be spoiled: the plot is so "everyday life of ordinary people" that there is no suspense at any point in the movie. The parents are very simple people and speak simply, often only affirming or negating a question by saying "yes," "no," or "is that right?" So there is nothing resembling sterling dialogue. No, it is a character study of relationships among the family that carries on interminably.What was odd to me was how unconcerned their children were about the visit and how little they were willing to sacrifice in time for their parents even as the trip must have been long-prepared. Perhaps the cognitive dissonance of my associating Asian cultures with respecting the elderly (if not their parents!) was surprising to me. Most people would have treated elderly strangers with more consideration. Their indifference was almost painful to watch. It was almost as if the director wanted to make the children as selfish and negligent as possible and exaggerated their flaws.The cinematography was excellent but it, too, seemed odd as if beautiful scenic shots were interspersed among the tight interior shots where the sparse dialogue was taking place. It did break up the monotony of the first-grade level vocabulary and dialogue.Give me the weakest Kurosawa any day over this. And Roger Ebert gave it 4 stars (highest rating) and said it was one of the greatest movies EVER made. I'm giving it 6 stars because I must be missing something obvious.

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