Summary
An aging couple travel from their country village to Tokyo, to visit their adult children. As they vacation in the big city, they realize what lives their children lead, what attitudes they have toward their parents, and how they feel about their own lives as they near their departure.
Old People Movies
I love movies about the elderly. I believe that we, the American Culture, do not think about old age and death nearly enough. My wife always says that I can't wait to be an old man and maybe that is true. Often in films, i find that I identify more with the old mentor character than the young hero. I never wanted to be Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. I wanted to be Obiwan or Yoda.
Knowing that, realize that this movie is in many ways, made to my own tastes almost to perfection. Its arthouse directing style, foreign language, slow pacing, and focus on generational conflict focusing on an elderly couple are all huge draws to me. If none of that interests you, you can stop reading here. This movie just isn't for you.
No stones being thrown here. It just won't be your cup of tea. Or jam. Or toast.
Mis en Scene
I don't normally get into the artsy fartsy points of interest in my movie reviews but I thought this would be a good time to introduce my readers who didn't go to film school of a term they may hear more and more if they find themselves enjoying this type of film. The phrase is Mis en Scene.
This is a cinematographer/director term which refers to the arrangement of elements on the screen. Many time we english speakers will use the term composition to describe this element.
I bring up Mis en Scene for three reasons.
1) I went to film school, paid to learn what this means, and I'm gonna use it, OK!
2) If you want to sound uppity this is a great term to use as a way of belittling "pedestrian-film-viewers" and so I want you to know it so as to disarm "intellectuals" from making you feel low-class.
3) "Tokyo Story" is primarily amazing because of its Mis en Scene.
This is a slow film, but it also needs to be, because the ideas that are communicated in the film are communicated primarily through the placement of characters, The facing of those characters, and set design. There isn't really any camera movement and the dialogue is pretty subtle until the third act, when it becomes more on the nose, but not in a bad way.
The way that you know which daughter cares more about the parents is not that she says "I love you." It's that she places her parents in a place where they form a group with her, instead of facing her as a group meeting another group.
You can tell almost from the beginning of the film that something is going to happen to one of the parents, not because they complain about their health, but because they are always shot from a back-three-quarter angle so that they always seem to be moving on.
This communication of ideas through blocking, camera angle choices, and using the set to create frames within frames is one of the things that makes for truly remarkable, subtle, and beautiful direction.
Fanfare for the Aging Man
The message in this film not a subtle one. It's a film that wants you to call your mom after you watch it. I actually think it is more profound than that but it is a film which focuses on what is happening to Japan's aging generations as their children are building a new modern Japan.
I think this message is incredibly important for us in America as the information age leaves many behind. This film shows us the importance of family and being willing to care about our elders who may be left behind or feel ignored, even when their behaviour is embarrassing to us.
But it also conveys an important message for us while we care for them, and that is to not judge those who are unable to care for them. We must let people push forward into that new world and not look down our nose at those who are too busy, or not wealthy enough to concern themselves with their elders.
The daughter we are supposed to identify as the most loving and respectful, Noriko, doesn't shame or think ill of her sister that doesn't. She recognizes that she has other concerns and a family and a business, and that someday she might be in that same position as well and it is simply her particular set of circumstances that allow her to be present for her parents as much as she is.
Verdict
I loved this movie for its direction and composition but at the end of the day, it was the theme that set it apart for me. Especially, the way that the loving daughter treats her sister.
Often, when we start doing well at something or feel like there is something we must do, we not only do that thing, but judge others for not doing it. In fact, I would argue that our culture encourages this. It's not enough to say 'I'm going to cut out fatty foods.' We have to lobby for laws that force restaurants to use different kinds of ingredients so that everyone does things the way we do.
There are many examples of this but I don't want to offend anyone by using more specific examples. Suffice it to say, that I find this attitude to be incredibly destructive and pervasive, even in my own life.
As a Christian, I believe one of the things I should be striving for is "me to see my own transgressions and not to judge my brother." This prayer and effort focuses on the self and what I can do to be a better me, and allow others to do as best they can and not to hit them over their head with their failings.
Perhaps if more people were like Noriko, the loving daughter, Facebook, the internet, the supermarket, and even the world would be more alive with people self-correcting than with people yelling at others for not being perfect.
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