Last year I found relief from lockdown stresses in the films of Yasujiro Ozu on the BFI Player, my favourite was the profound TOKYO STORY.
Ozu based it on Leo McCarey's 1937 Hollywood film MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW.
Shukichi and Tomi visit Tokyo to see their oldest children: son Koichi, his wife and sons, daughter Shige and her husband, and their daughter-in-law Noriko, the widow of their son killed in WW2.
Their younger son Keizo lives in Osaka and the youngest daughter Kyoko lives at home.
On arrival they find Koichi and Shige are too busy to spend time with them, only Noriko is happy to show them the city and spend an evening with them.
Their children pay for a spa visit but they cannot settle and decide to return home early.
Tomi is taken ill on the train; now it is the children who return home...
Shelf or charity shop? In a class - and a shelf - of it's own. It was first shown in London four years later and won the first-ever Sutherland trophy for the most original and creative film shown at the NFT, and received it's first US release in 1972; bizarrely Japanese exporters thought Ozu 'too Japanese' for Western audiences while happily exporting Samurai and feudal ghost films. Deceptively simple, Ozu packs a deep emotional resonance that lingers long after the film ends: it's weighty themes of the disappointments within families, death, absence, and perseverence are handled with a delicacy of touch that is astounding - where 99.9% of directors would go for award-worthy emotional grandstanding, Ozu closes the door quietly on his characters to give them their space. Ozu and co-writer Koga Noda's story is told at a steady pace, giving his cast - and us - a chance to walk alongside the characters. Ozu had his own little 'rep' company of performers and here he cast Haruko Sagimura - who won a Japanese Supporting Actress award - as Shige the eldest daughter who balks at spending time with her parents and Nobuo Nakamura as her complaisant husband. Kyoko Kagawa - in her only Ozu film - is very good as the youngest daughter who makes the quiet observation at the end "Isn't life disappointing?" Three performances however go beyond acting: Chieko Higashiyama is Tomi, the ever-smiling mother who sees good in everyone - the scene where she goes for a walk with her grandson who ignores her attempts to chat will break your heart - the luminous Setsuko Hara as Noriko, the loving daughter-in-law and Ozu's favourite actor Chishu Ryu as the father Shukichi; the film slowly reveals the hard times he put his wife through during their marriage but his loss at the end is palpable.
Arigato Ozu-san, arigato..
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