DVDs in Review

Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)

Title: Tokyo Story (Yasujirô Ozu, 1953)

Release date: July 19 2010

Certificate: U

Format: Dual Format Blu-ray and DVD

RRP: £19.99

Rating: 5/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

How many films with a certificate of U have so little action as ‘Tokyo Story’?  Yasujirô Ozu’s masterpiece is one of the most contemplative, fixating and slow moving dramas in film history, thankfully now restored by the BFI and brought out on Blu-ray for a new generation to appreciate.

This is the kind of film that one would appreciate, rather than watch. So little happens in the way of plot development that you find yourself sinking into the characterization, only to resurface at the end not sure what to think. And yet it is completely compelling.

The only real story point shows an elderly couple who embark on a journey to see their children, who have now become so thoroughly enthralled in the busy post-World War II Japanese society that they really don’t have time to welcome their relatives. Only when tragedy strikes do the characters come out of hiding, but in doing so, reveal their cracks that have been evident for years.

‘Tokyo Story’ has a feel of ‘Everybody’s Fine’ – the Italian classic about a widowed man visiting his grown up children who have no time for him, recently remade with Robert De Niro in the lead role. This bypasses star power and cross cutting and replaces it with complete simplicity.

Ozu’s camera is almost relentlessly still and unobtrusive. It’s like it’s too polite to get up and move around when someone is having a conversation. Static shots with little in the way of close-ups give ‘Tokyo Story’ a stage-like presence, but the dialogue would possibly be lost on an audience sitting pews away. This is all about the faces, the reactions, the longings, the realization, the way people begin to think when time has left them behind and they’re too tired to catch up.