Tokyo Story (Japan, 1953, Yasujiru Ozu) AKA Life is Disappointing

"None can serve his parents beyond the grave."
--Confucius.

Let’s face it, filial piety ain’t what it used to be. But it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be either. I mean, as a social goal, it’s always seemed awfully old-fashioned to me; the sort of quiet obedience that marks devotion to one’s parents has never struck me as a vital quality around which to build an enlightened society. I mean, who the hell hasn’t been terminally embarrassed by one’s parents? And if we don’t kick and rail against everything they stand for, how are we ever going to carve out a distinct reality and identity for ourselves? So how is it that, despite much skepticism going in, I am forced to admit that Yasujiro Ozu’s lifelong fascination with the familial dynamic in a rapidly-changing Japan has resulted in the production of one of the most quietly powerful studies of the gradual and inevitable erosion of filial piety in just such a world. And just how is it that, despite my misgivings regarding the value of this sort of studious and anachronistic obeisance, and regardless of how I spent much of my youth fighting against the very things that this film seems to be championing, Tokyo Story STILL managed to knock the pins out from under me?

A bittersweet wash of brittle facades and forced pleasantries, Yasujiru Ozu’s Tokyo Story is a mournful movie about the disappointment innate in the experience of being a parent in a world in a state of flux. The film certainly adopts the parental point-of-view at the expense of the petty children whose self-absorption couldn’t be more sponge-like. This certainly didn’t incline me to get me to climb aboard this cinematic train, as the painful properness of this ageing couple’s relationship, both with each other and the outside world—as represented at first by an inquisitive neighbour and later by their own children—seems, like the troubling stricture of their forces smiles, strained and painfully repressed, almost to the point of obsequiousness. However, as the film marches quietly on, it becomes clear that these are people who have arrived at some hard-fought wisdom after struggling through life’s many challenges. While these two are hardly saints themselves, as their later willingness to rake over coals of their tattered relationship with their children suggests, they have a willing acceptance of those things they cannot change. Characteristically, Shukishi (Chishu Ryu) sagely comments to an old friend who complains of the many ways he feels let down by his progeny that we "expect too much from our children."

Tokyo Story is most incisive as a study of the corrosive effects that modernity has upon the Japanese family unit. The whingeing of the ancient couple’s grandson is an early sign of the discord that the parental visit is going to bring, as well as an indicator of the sort of unpleasantness seething just beneath the surface. It also shows us that the journey from parent’s home in the country to the children’s Tokyo setting, which happens in a heartbeat of screen time, is a long one, both literally and metaphorically. The parents have traveled far, as they have not been to Tokyo before, and are not likely to make the trip again. When Shukishi and Tomi (Chieko Higashiyami) arrive in Tokyo, they are greeted by their children respectfully, but coolly. Their kids bicker over what to feed them, and search for ways to slip out of the noose of familial obligations, largely, it seems, because it costs them both time, and more importantly, money. At one point, the elderly couple’s embarrassed daughter even denies her parent’s identity, telling an acquaintance that they are just friends visiting from the country. Clearly, the distance between the parents and their children isn’t just that of age and geography, but also outlook and lifestyle, values and belief. The generational conflicts serve to emphasize the separation of rural and urban, ancient and modern, east and west in a contemporary Japan seeking to rise phoenix-like from the ashes of the Second World War through a near single-minded devotion to economic prosperity. Eventually the children shuffle their parents off to a coastal spa, which not only removes from them the burden of entertaining the old folks, but also saves the children money, because they won’t have to miss work to take mom and dad out on the town. At the spa, as the parents gaze out at the sea, their mouths may honour their children for sending them their, but their eyes tell a different story, one of disappointment and regret.

Tokyo Story is rife with this sort of pervasive sense of loss, not just of a single life, but of what Japan has surrendered in order to enter the modern industrial world. While ominous, Tomi’s morbid musings on mortality as she watches grandson pluck blades of grass also acts as a reminder of the finality of this visit, which takes on allegorical overtones for all of us—the elderly couple, like we in the audience, will not be passing this way again. Likewise, the film is an elegy to a Japanese society that is rapidly giving way. Ozu’s fixation on the distinctive manners of traditional Japanese society is reminiscent of Victorian era period pieces, placing us in a world of tightly controlled emotions where you have to be patient and attentive to spot minor but significant shifts in characters thoughts and feelings.

Those familiar with his work will see much evidence of Ozu’s touch--the tatami-mat level pov, the serene camera work, the elegant mis-en-scene, and his thematic concerns with familial discord evident throughout. While he is a much different sort of filmmaker, Ozu’s Tokyo Story shares much in common with countryman Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru. Both films are intimate ruminations on the power and fragility of an individual’s life, both sneak up on you and slug you where it hurts, and with both films the pain stays with you for days afterwards. There is very little comfort ("Life is disappointing") and a terrible amount of sorrow ("If I'd known things would come to this, I would have been kinder to her") in Tokyo Story, which is remarkable given how much there is of the former and how little there is of the latter up there on the screen. How Ozu manages this is the secret of every great master; he trusts the audience to bring to the film a certain level of intelligence and emotional commitment. If you are willing and able to do same, you should find, as I did, that Tokyo Story is a profoundly moving experience.

Score: 93/100