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Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Country
Japan
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Year
1953
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Genre
Drama
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Alternative titles
- Tōkyō Monogatari Original Japanese
- 東京物語 Original Japanese
- Their First Trip to Tokyo Alternative
Introduction
“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
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Cast
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Shukichi Hirayama
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Tomi, Hirayama's wife
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Noriko, Hirayama's daughter-in-law
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Shige, Hirayama's elder daughter
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Koichi, Hirayama's elder son
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Fumiko, Koichi's wife
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Kyôko, Hirayama's younger daughter
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Sanpei Numata, Hirayama's friend
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Kurazo Kaneko, Shige's husband
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Keizo, Hirayama's younger son
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Osamu Hattori, Hirayama's friend
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Yone
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woman at oden counter
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Noriko's neighbour
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railway clerk
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woman at Noriko's apartment
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Minoru, Koichi's elder son
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Isamu, Koichi's younger son
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hair salon assistant
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hair salon customer
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hair salon customer
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tenant
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patient
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policeman
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company section chief at Noriko's office
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clerk at Noriko's office
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maid at inn
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maid at inn
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singer at inn
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other doctor
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Credits
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Direction:
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Director
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Assistant Director
Production:
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Production Company
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Producer
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Production Manager
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Assistant
Shohei Imamura (uncredited)
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Studio
Writing:
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Screenplay
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Screenplay
Photography:
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Director of Photography
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Lighting
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Assistant Cinematographer
Editing:
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Editor
Design:
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Art Director
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Set Designer
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Set Decorator
Costumes:
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Costume Designer
Music:
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Music
Sound:
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Sound Recording
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