Today's film recommendation, the second in the series, is Yasujiro Ozu's masterpiece "Tokyo Story," which premiered in 1953. I first saw this film when I was still an architecture student, and my professor recommended it to me, saying, "When designing a house, it's good to consider the circumstances of the people who will live there." Although it's a film from 70 years ago, it's a masterpiece that beautifully portrays the distance in modern Japanese family relationships, a subtle sadness, and the kindness of people.
Synopsis
Shūkichi (Chishū Ryū) and his wife Tomi (Chieko Higashiyama), who live in Onomichi, leave their second daughter Kyoko (Kyoko Kagawa), who works as an elementary school teacher, to look after the house while they go to Tokyo.
The two are given a place to stay at the home of Koichi (Satoshi Yamamura), the eldest son who runs a small clinic in the downtown area. However, just as they are about to go sightseeing in Tokyo, an emergency patient comes in, and they are ultimately unable to leave.
Later, they visit the home of Shige (Haruko Sugimura), who runs a beauty salon in the downtown area, but both Shige and her husband (Nobuo Nakamura) are busy and unable to take their parents anywhere, leaving them to simply live on the second floor of their house without any care. Seeing this, Shige asks Noriko (Setsuko Hara), the wife of her second son who died in the war, to look after her parents. Noriko takes time off work to take them to Tokyo's tourist attractions and treats them to the best of her ability at her small apartment in the evenings.
The next day, the two boarded the train home, seen off by everyone, but Tomi fell ill and got off in Osaka, where she was allowed to stay at the home of the third son, Keizo (Shiro Osaka). Once Tomi recovered, she and Shūkichi lamented how unkind their children had been, but they talked about how their lives had been good.
Shortly after the two returned to Onomichi, they received a telegram saying their mother was in critical condition. Noriko and her three children rushed to Onomichi, but Tomi never regained consciousness and passed away.
On the day Noriko was to return to Tokyo, Shūkichi expressed his gratitude for her kindness, told her to remarry soon and be happy, and gave her his wife's keepsake watch. Noriko burst into tears.
The next morning, alone in his empty room, Shūkichi gazed out at the tranquil sea of Onomichi.
This story conveys something that is often forgotten: "humanity."
A city family. Their lives are hectic, with busy work schedules and constant pressure. Even when exhausted, they rarely get a chance to rest.
Then, unexpected guests arrive, even if they're just parents. Whether it's the wife's or the husband's side, many people probably find it troublesome because it increases the need to be considerate of each other.
Like Noriko in the film, how many people today possess the kindness and generosity to show their late husband's wife's parents around Tokyo, offer them a place to stay, and even give them a small amount of spending money?
This is a film that can remind you of "something" that you tend to forget when you're working long hours in a busy city.
