Product Details

• Actors: Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama, Sô Yamamura, Setsuko Hara, Haruko Sugimura
• Directors: Yasujiro Ozu
• Writers: Yasujiro Ozu, Kôgo Noda
• Producers: Takeshi Yamamoto
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Studio: New Yorker Films
• VHS Release Date: March 20, 2001
• Run Time: 136 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000006D1S
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,158 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #6 in	Video > Art House & International > Asian Cinema > Japan > Classics
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Yasujiro Ozu's economical style reaches its zenith in this deceptively simple 1953 story of an elderly couple in rural Japan who go to visit their married children in Tokyo. Chishu Ryo (Ozu's favorite performer) and Chieko Higashiyama star as the aging parents who find a cold welcome waiting for them from their two urbanized children, too busy with work and their own lives to pay them any attention. After a miserable trip to a noisy spa, the mother spends a pleasant night with the widow of their other son (who had died in the war) while the father drinks the evening away with old friends. But on their return trip, the mother falls ill and the family reunites one last time at her sickbed. Within this simple framework, Ozu creates a quiet but profound drama of the changing face of Japanese culture and the loss of traditional values in modern society. Described by critics as Japan's most "Japanese" director, Ozu's style by this time had become firmly established: the entire film is shot from an unmoving camera 36 inches from the floor (the point of view of an observer kneeling on a tatami mat), edited in a subtly off-center manner and paced at a placid tempo. Ozu's graceful style, understated direction, and rich evocation of character creates an elegantly realized world of dignity in the face of disappointment and loss. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accepting life for what it is, June 24, 2002

By A Customer

Tokyo Story is a movie that can be understood and loved by people everywhere because its theme is so universal. Kids grow up and neglect their parents. Sadly, the children often don't come to this realization until it's too late. In the movie, the youngest son expresses his guilt during his mother's funeral when he says we should be kind to our parents while they are alive, because filial piety cannot reach beyond the grave. But I don't think Ozu is condemning children. He's just pointing out that this is the way life is. The character Noriko poignantly states this, later in the movie.

Just a quick note about the famous lines spoken near the end of the film. The English subtitles give the spirit of the Japanese. But what Kyoko actually says to Noriko is, "Iya ne yononaka te" (The world is disgusting, isn't it?). Noriko responds by saying, "So, iya na koto bakari" (That's right, there are only disgusting things). Noriko can smile when she says this because she has come to accept life for what it is.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, sensitive, and timeless portrayal of a family, November 6, 1999

By A Customer

I first saw this in college. I was overwhelmed by the quiet but poignant characterizations and plot development centering around an elderly couple's trip to Tokyo to see their grown children and grandchildren, and the subsequent funeral of the grandmother after she suffers a fatal stroke upon the couple's return to the little seaside town of Onomichi. The director of this film, Yasujiro Ozu, has been called the most "Japanese" of the great Japanese directors, and this is certainly his masterpiece; indeed, many critics consider it the greatest film ever made in Japan. A must for connoisseurs of world cinema and Japanese culture.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this story!, February 19, 2000

By A Customer

I'm a japanese and I love this warm story. you'll love it. you may rethink your parents as somebody complicated..... but please love your family more and more.