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TOKYO MONOGATARI
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Featuring Chishu Ryu / Chieko Higashiyama / Setsuko Hara
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Gurinder Chadha on Tokyo Story
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Joanna Hogg on Tokyo Story
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Tony Rayns on Yasujiro Ozu Season
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Tony Rayns on Tokyo Story and Late Autumn
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Tokyo Story: Masterclass with Mamoun Hassan
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Posters (1)
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Stills (23)
The final part of Yasujiro Ozu’s loosely connected ‘Noriko’ trilogy is a devastating story of elderly grandparents brushed aside by their self-involved family.
“Ozu’s examination of the slow fracturing of the Japanese family in Tokyo Story is filled with quiet resignation, a neverending acceptance and the realization that tradition is subject to change.”
Nick Wrigley, sensesofcinema.com, 2003
The later films of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu are marked by a striking uniformity of theme and form. These are stories of family life involving inevitable rupture, as things change, daughters marry, widowers grow old. Ozu films this bittersweet natural progression in his unmistakably controlled, minimal style, typified by head-on shots with the camera at the height of a seated observer. Tokyo Story is the best known (in the West) of this extraordinary cycle, a quietly tragic tale of an ageing couple coming to the painful realisation that their family no longer needs them.
Luminous Ozu regular Setsuko Hara plays daughter-in-law Noriko. Alhough not the same character as the Norikos she plays in Late Spring (1949) and Early Summer (1951), the films are considered a loose trilogy.
Said to have been an inspiration to Ozu, Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) is a fiercely unsentimental Hollywood treatment of Tokyo Story’s theme.
Cast & credits
Cast
- Shukichi Hirayama Chishu Ryu
- Tomi, Hirayama's wife Chieko Higashiyama
- Noriko, Hirayama's daughter-in-law Setsuko Hara
- Shige, Hirayama's elder daughter Haruko Sugimura
- Koichi, Hirayama's elder son Sô Yamamura
- Fumiko, Koichi's wife Kuniko Miyake
- Kyôko, Hirayama's younger daughter Kyôko Kagawa
- Sanpei Numata, Hirayama's friend Eijirô Tono
- Kurazo Kaneko, Shige's husband Nobuo Nakamura
- Keizo, Hirayama's younger son Shirô Osaki
- Osamu Hattori, Hirayama's friend Hisao Toake
- Yone Teruko Nagaoka
- woman at oden counter Mutsuko Sakura
- Noriko's neighbour Toyo Takahashi
- railway clerk Toru Abe
- woman at Noriko's apartment Sachiko Mitani
- Minoru, Koichi's elder son Zen Murase
- Isamu, Koichi's younger son Mitsuhiro Mori
- hair salon assistant Junko Anan
- hair salon customer Ryoko Mizuki
- hair salon customer Yoshiko Togawa
- tenant Kazuhiro Itokawa
- patient Fumio Toyama
- policeman Keijiro Morozumi
- company section chief at Noriko's office Tsutomu Niijima
- clerk at Noriko's office Akira Suzuki
- maid at inn Yoshiko Tashiro
- maid at inn Haruko Chichibu
- singer at inn Takashi Miki
- other doctor Toshinosuke Nagao
Credits
Direction
- Director Yasujiro Ozu
- Assistant Director Kozo Yamamoto
Production
- Production Company Shochiku Co. Ltd.
- Producer Takeshi Yamamoto
- Production Manager Tomiji Shimizu
- [Assistant] Shohei Imamura
- Studio Shochiku Ofuna
Writing
- Screenplay Kogo Noda
- Screenplay Yasujiro Ozu
Photography
- Director of Photography Yuharu Atsuta
- Lighting Itsuo Takashita
- Assistant Cinematographer Takashi Kawamata
Editing
- Editor Yoshiyasu Hamamura
Design
- Art Director Tatsuo Hamada
- Set Designer Toshio Takahashi
- Set Decorator Setsutaro Moriya
Costumes
- Costume Designer Taizo Saito
Music
- Music Ichirô Saitô
Sound
- Sound Recording Yoshisaburo Senoo