By Ryan Strong

To put it bluntly, Tokyo Story is simply the greatest film ever made. Nothing can match it–not Charles Foster Kane and his sled, nor a San Francisco detective trying to overcome his fear of heights. The film is by a Japanese director, Yasujiro Ozu. It is set in post-war Japan during the 1950’s, a time during which country is rapidly modernizing and rebuilding after the war. It is with this backdrop that Ozu constructs an astonishing powerful story about everything and nothing, a story that is about an entire country and a single family.

The story begins in a village in Japan where two older people, Tomi Hirayama and Shukichi Hirayama, decide that they will go to visit their two children in Tokyo, Koichi and Shige. Their daughter-in-law, Noriko–married to a son who died in World War II–also lives in Tokyo, working an office job. Koichi, their son and eldest child, is a local doctor and Shige, their daughter, is a hairdresser. So, they leave their youngest daughter, Kyoko, behind and travel by train to the city.

When they arrive, the three living in the city greet them. However, it quickly becomes clear that they have become estranged from their two children; they have become far too busy with their work and lives to spend much time with their parents. On top of this, their grandchildren will barely talk to them. Only Noriko shows true kindness to them, taking time out of her day to take them around the city at various points in the film.

However, the children are still quite polite to their parents and plan to send their parents to a new, expensive resort in order to assuage their guilty consciences. The parents do not enjoy the resort at all and return to Tokyo for one last night. Then, they return home to their village, quietly expressing disappointment with their children.

After they return, Tomi falls ill, and so all of her children come to the village, along with Noriko. After they come, she dies, and now there is real feeling for her. Shige, the person who was most opposed to the visit, sobs. The funeral happens, and the family is reunited (except for Tomi) for a short time. However, Shige and Koichi quickly express their need to return to Tokyo for their work, and so they do. After a while, Noriko does as well.

The most extraordinary part of the film is without a doubt the characters. They are all so complex that every time I think about the film, I marvel at the realism which Ozu was able to achieve. For example, though from the brief plot summary above it may that Shige and Koichi are the antagonists of the film, the truth is anything but. Ozu shows that both truly love their parents, but they have become so busy with their lives that they do not have time for them. Nor are the parents completely blameless. It is stated in the film that the father, Shukichi, was a drunkard when his older children were younger, and he is shown drunk at one point in the film.

Perhaps the most interesting person in the film is Noriko, the daughter-in-law. She at first appears as a kind and gentle character; make no mistake, she stays in that character mold throughout the film. However, at the end of the film, she constantly insists that she is a selfish person, as she says that she often times forgets her dead husband. This brings us to one of the most interesting, yet subtle conflicts in the film. Both Tomi and Shukichi both tell Noriko she should remarry, however, she seems unable to move on from her husband. This is somewhat strange, considering it is implied that he was abusive toward her. Perhaps the reason that she cannot move beyond her dead husband is that he was one of her last real human connections; after all, she confesses at the end of the film how desperately lonely she is, which could explain why she takes time out of her day to stay with her in-laws.

The themes are one of the reasons why Tokyo Story is one of the greatest films ever made. At one point in the film, a character remarks about how life is disappointing. This is perhaps the essential point of the film: things change, nothing is permanent, and so disappointment is inevitable. However, the tragedy in the film is never overdone. It is always what could be called everyday tragedy, a tragedy that is not due to some wicked person but due to the fact that the characters are just all too human. Another major theme in the work is the destruction of traditional Japanese society by modernization. It’s heartbreaking to watch as Ozu contrasts the differences between the older and younger generations in order to show this breakdown.

The reason why any and every SAS student should watch this film is that it reminds us of what is truly important in our lives. Furthermore, the film tries shows the reality of life, shattering through our comforting illusions. So much more could be said about this film, but for these main reasons, the movie is well worth the 2 hours and 15 minutes it takes to watch.