After more than a month, another movie review. I really ought to have reviewed Gosford Park and maybe The Big Clock too, but for one reason and another here we are and I'm going back to Yasujiro Ozu. Tokyo Story is a marvelous film, but it's going to kick your guts right out at the end. Don't say I didn't warn you. There be spoilers ahead!
Tokyo Story is about an elderly couple visiting their adult children who live in Tokyo. Their eldest son is a doctor, their daughter owns a hair salon with her husband (the Ooh La La Beauty Salon) and their daughter-in-law works in an import/export company. The daughter-in-law, Noriko, was married to their second son who went missing and presumed killed in the war. They have another son as well who works for the railroad in Osaka, about halfway between their country village and Tokyo.
As the movie develops, it becomes clear that the biological children view the visit of the parents as an onerous duty for them to put up with. They find themselves constantly too busy to spend much time with their parents and don't take them to see the sights in Tokyo. It ends up falling to Noriko to take her in-laws around despite the fact that she has to take time off from work to do so while her brother-in-law and sister-in-law are their own bosses.
After a while, the brother and sister decide that they should send their parents off to a hot springs spa. They convince themselves that their parents will enjoy it and this is the best thing to do. After one night there, however, their parents are miserable because it is a haunt of the bright, young things of post-war Japan who are up and noisy to all hours keeping the elderly couple from enjoying their stay.
It's after the parents return to Tokyo that the wheels really begin to come off. Their daughter makes it clear that they're not welcome in her house in a subtle way, and the parents decide that they can't go back to the elder son's house after concluding their visit with him, so the mother will go to stay with Noriko in her tiny one-room apartment and the father will gamble on visiting on old friend in Tokyo and being invited to stay the night. The upshot off all this is that Noriko is clearly the only one of their children (even thought she's a daughter-in-law and not a blood relative) who is happy to see them and enjoys their presence. She even gives the mother an expensive gift before she leaves despite her own obvious lack of wealth.
I won't talk about the end of the movie, because I'd still like it to keep some of that emotional punch, but Noriko's qualities shine even brighter before the film ends. This movie is rightly accounted a great one and though it has little action and the plot moves slowly, the pace is majestic and the story and characters are unforgettable. Everyone should see this movie, though, sadly, far fewer would actually appreciate its worth.
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