Tokyo Story

Ozu’s Perhaps most well-known film is a deeply moving drama about family dynamics, generation gap, and loneliness.

Tokyo Story is a timeless classic and one of the most delicately touching films in history. This is the story of a mother and a father who are going to visit their adult children in Tokyo. But life in Tokyo is busy, and it's only their daughter-in-law Norika who has the time to take care of the elderly.

When Wim Wenders introduced this film in Berlin in 2003, he said that films like Tokyo Story are no longer made, and that «Ozu represents a lost paradise of cinema.» Ozu made films that, at first glance, seem simple: He often drew themes from family and everyday life, the camera is static, and the pace is anything but hectic. However, Ozu's unique storytelling allows for many details, nuances, and associations, which is why his films are so full of charm, life, and emotions.

The American film critic Donald Richie sees the dissolution of the traditional Japanese family as Ozu's main theme. But since all families, whether modern or old-fashioned, contain disappointments, demands, sorrows, and joys, Ozu remains relevant, and that's also why his films continue to touch new audiences.

«Not to have seen Tokyo Story is not to have lived.»
– Geoff Brown, the Times –

Cinemateket i Oslo

Director

Yasujirō Ozu (1903 - 1963) was a Japanese filmmaker and one of the most important figures in the history of Japanese cinema. Ozu's films focused on the lives of ordinary people in Japan, a genre known as shomin-geki. He directed several influential films, including Late Spring (1949), Tokyo Story (1953), and An Autumn Afternoon (1962), to name a few.

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