Slideshow
TOKYO STORY
Japan, 1953
Directed by Yasujirō Ozu
With Setsuko Hara, Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama
Approx. 137 min. 35mm print courtesy of Japan Foundation/4K DCP Restoration.
In Japanese with English subtitles
The generation gap in post-war Japan as an elderly couple, shunted aside when they visit their children in Tokyo, are befriended only by their daughter-in-law, continually-smiling Setsuko Hara–but when she stops… Voted the greatest film of all time in the 2012 Sight & Sound directors poll.
Reviews
“So Japanese and at the same time so personal, and hence so universal in its appeal, that it becomes a masterpiece.”
– Donald Richie
“One of the manifest miracles of the cinema.”
– The New Yorker
“Has the power to astonish, disrupt, and shatter hearts. Ozu’s long shots, knee-high camera placement, and collapsed perspective—as gorgeous and unsettling as a Cézanne—gather power over the duration, but time itself is the master’s most potent weapon.”
– Eric Hynes, Village Voice
“TOKYO STORY ennobles the cinema. It says, yes, a movie can help us make small steps against our imperfections.”
– Roger Ebert