Tokyo Story (1953)

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu

Before I learned to use the phrase “It’s like an Ozu film,” I had to string together words like simple, classic, beautiful, and grace; mention themes of life/change and tradition/modernity; and improperly use nouns such as humanity, everyday, and harmony as adjectives.  As I struggled to find a response to a fellow film geek’s review of Tokyo Story, I started watching the film without subtitles—initially on accident—and I realized just how much visual depth and textures (without the distraction of subtitles) were captured by Ozu’s camera.  His films are obvious, told simply and clearly—their methods of storytelling don't obscure its themes so that the audience feels smart for figuring out its meaning (through gimmicks that feign complexity).

Tokyo Story is art at its most humane.  It explores the generational gap between parents and their grown-up children.  Now adults, the children find themselves too busy with their own lives to properly mind their parents who have come a long way to visit them.  Ozu’s films are timeless, not because their stories feel like they could happen today (although, that is also true) but rather they are timeless because it makes the viewer feel as one of their time.

A 200-word review/rebuttal of James Blake Ewing's Tokyo Story review at Cinema Sights. 

Enjoy: Sense of Cinema on Yasujiro Ozu and articles by Roger Ebert, The Great Movies and on Ozu.
The 4-minute (Criterion Collection) trailer and more screens after the jump...

Top Ten Criterion Collection Films (personal collection)

All Criterion Collection, Eclipse, and Essential Art House series (brands of Criterion) titles are on sale at Barnes & Noble (50% off) until August 1st, both at stores and online. I just got Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (1978) on bluray and it looks fabulous. Image from DVDBeaver.com. 

What are the Top 5 or 10 discs from your collection? Mine are as follows (all regular ray/dvd):

1. The Double Life of Véronique  (Kieślowski, 1991) - Slavoj ŽiŽek's essay from included booklet
2. In the Mood for Love  (Wong, 2000)
3. Children of Paradise  (Carné, 1945)
4. Red Beard  (Kurosawa, 1965) - roger ebert's the great movies
5. Contempt  (Godard, 1963)
6. The Royal Tenenbaums  (W. Anderson, 2001)
7. The Rules of the Game  (Renoir, 1939)
8. Trouble in Paradise  (Lubitsch, 1932) - 'lost treasure' from sense of cinema
9. Jules and Jim  (Truffaut, 1962)
10. A Woman is a Woman  (Godard, 1961)

Honorable Mentions (bluray): Chungking Express, Days of Heaven, and Seven Samurai

Revised 7/20/11: Real Honorable Mention (dvd) is A Woman is a Woman (Godard, 1961).
Revised 8/4/11: replaced M with A Woman is a Woman (i have the older version of M).