Tokyo Story movie review & film summary (1953)

There is an extraordinary scene soon after the old parents arrive. "These are your grandparents," Fumiko tells her oldest son, Minoru. And then to her mother-in-law: "Minoru is in middle school now." So this is the first time he has met them, yet he escapes quickly to his room. Ozu's lifelong theme is the destruction of the Japanese family through work and modernization, and in only two lines of dialogue, he shows us how the generations have drifted apart.

The grown children mean well. They try to make time for their visitors. There is a moment of rich humor when we join them all on a tour bus, everyone bouncing and leaning in unison. But old folks spend most days "resting" at home because no one is free to take them anywhere. When Koichi brings home cakes for his parents, Fumiko says they're too expensive, and the old folks won't appreciate them; while discussing this, they eat the cakes. Oddly, the person who treats them most kindly and makes time for them is Noriko, the widow of their middle son.

The others feel bad that they can't spare more time for their parents and hit on a solution: They'll send them for a holiday to Atami Hot Springs. Shukichi and Tomi did not come to Tokyo to go to a spa, but they agree. At the spa, we see young people dancing and playing cards, and then, in one of those perfect Ozu shots, two pairs of shoes placed neatly side by side outside the old couple's door. The next morning, as they're sitting side by side on a sea wall, he says, "Let's go home."

People spend a lot of time sitting side by side in an Ozu film. Instead of over-the-shoulder compositions, he likes two or three characters all in a row. If this causes violations of the eyeline rules (sometimes they don't seem to be looking at one another when they speak), he doesn't care. Often he views them from behind. He composes this way, I think, so we can see them all at once, the listeners as well as the speakers.

The last night in Tokyo is made of two wonderful sequences. Tomi goes to stay with Noriko, and Shukichi says he will visit an old friend from the village. Tomi and Noriko have a warm and loving conversation (the old woman tells her son's widow she should remarry), and Shukichi gets plastered with two former village friends. As they drink, they complain about their lives and children, and we see how alcohol helps them break through the resolutely positive Japanese public face.

All through the movie, Tomi and Shukichi discuss their disappointment in such guarded words, punctuated with so many nods and agreements, that their real feelings are hidden in code. Notice how they criticize their grandchildren by saying they prefer their children. Listen how they agree their children are "better than average."