Tôkyô monogatari (1953)

Réalisateur:

Yasujiro Ozu

Scénaristes:

Kôgo Noda (writer)
Yasujiro Ozu (writer)

Date de sortie:

13 mars 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Drame

Intrigue:

An old couple visit their children and grandchildren in the city; but the children have little time for them.

Plot Keywords:

Selfishness | Elderly | Office | Waiting | Old Age

Récompenses:

2 wins

Avis des utilisateurs:

Too subtle and yet too obvious

Ensemble

Chishû Ryû	...	Shukishi Hirayama
Chieko Higashiyama	...	Tomi Hirayama
Setsuko Hara	...	Noriko Hirayama
Haruko Sugimura	...	Shige Kaneko
Sô Yamamura	...	Koichi Hirayama
Kuniko Miyake	...	Fumiko Hirayama - his wife
Kyôko Kagawa	...	Kyoko Hirayama
Eijirô Tôno	...	Sanpei Numata
Nobuo Nakamura	...	Kurazo Kaneko
Shirô Osaka	...	Keiso Hirayama
Hisao Toake	...	Osamu Hattori
Teruko Nagaoka	...	Yone Hattori
Mutsuko Sakura	...	Patron of the Oden Restaurant
Toyo Takahashi	...	Shukichi Hirayama's Neighbor (as Toyoko Takahashi)
Tôru Abe	...	Train employee
Sachiko Mitani	...	Noriko's Neighbor
Zen Murase	...	Minoru Hirayama - Koichi's son
Mitsuhiro Mori	...	Isamu Hirayama - Koichi's son
Junko Anan	...	Beauty Salon Assistant
Ryoko Mizuki	...	Biyôin no kyaku
Yoshiko Togawa	...	Beauty Salon Client
Kazuhiro Itokawa	...	Student - guest at Hattori's house
Keijiro Morozumi	...	Police agent
Tsutomu Nijima	...	Noriko's office boss
Shozo Suzuki	...	Noriko's office colleague
Yoshiko Tashiro	...	Hotel maid
Haruko Chichibu	...	Hotel maid
Takashi Miki	...	Singer
Binnosuke Nagao	...	Doctor at Onomichi

Réalisé par
Yasujiro Ozu

Scénaristes (dans l'ordre alphabétique)
Kôgo Noda		writer
Yasujiro Ozu		writer

Produit par
Takeshi Yamamoto	....	producer

Musique originale
Kojun Saitô

Image
Yuuharu Atsuta

Montage
Yoshiyasu Hamamura

Création des décors
Tatsuo Hamada
Itsuo Takahashi

Création des costumes
Taizo Saito

Assistant réalisateur
Shohei Imamura	....	first assistant director

Companies de production

• Shôchiku Eiga

Distributeurs

• Shôchiku Eiga (1953) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Shochiku Home Video (2003) (Japan) (DVD) (box-set)
• Shochiku Home Video (2007) (Japan) (DVD)
• Aito Mäkinen & Co (1964) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Svensk Filmindustri (SF) (1964) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• trigon-film (2007) (Austria) (theatrical)
• trigon-film (2007) (Germany) (theatrical)
• trigon-film (2007) (Switzerland) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• DeA Planeta Home Entertainment (Spain)
• Madman Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV) (1966) (Finland) (TV)
• New Yorker Films (1972) (USA) (subtitled)
• Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2009) (Finland) (DVD)
• Tartan (2004) (UK) (DVD)
• YLE Teema (2005) (Finland) (TV)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (1981) (Finland) (TV)
• trigon-film (2007) (Switzerland) (DVD)

Autre(s) titre(s):

Tokyo Story (USA)

Durée:

136 min

Pays:

Japan

Langue:

Japonais

Couleur:

Noir et Blanc

Rapport de forme:

1,37 : 1

Son:

Mono

Classification:

Brazil:18 | Hong Kong:I | Sweden:Btl | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:S | UK:U | Spain:T | Singapore:PG

Lieux de tournage:

Atami, Shizuoka, Japan

Société:

Shôchiku Eiga

Anecdotes:

The original negative was lost soon after the film was completed, due to a fire at the vault of the lab in Yokohama city. The film had to be released using prints made from a dupe protective negative.

Goofs:

Révélant des erreurs: The "dead" mother is visibly breathing.

Guillemet:

Kyoko: Isn't life disappointing?
Noriko: [smiles] Yes, it is.

Connexions De Film:

Références Stagecoach (1939)

Too subtle and yet too obvious

This film is commonly called one of the masterpieces of international film. Indeed, a well-known "intro to film" textbook uses it as a case study in notable film-making. But, as more than one reviewer so far has pointed out, 'Tokyo Story' is slow, obscure, and sometimes seemingly sterile. Understanding how a great classic could be seemingly soulless requires some study - of Japanese culture, as others have pointed out, of film technique, and of ourselves. Fortunately, that understanding more than fully repays itself, as is true of any great piece of art.

I should begin by warning the first time viewer that the film is not in any familiar style. Other reviewers have mentioned the camera, the angles, the acting, the elision - I hardly need dwell on these. Those used to Hollywood films of almost any era will find 'Tokyo Story' odd and unsettling, just because the style is so different. And of course the culture is radically different. In this forum one can hardly even begin to discuss the way that Japanese fathers discuss their children amongst themselves, or the marriage culture of 1950s Japan. But I think the film is great even if one has no understanding of continuity editing, or post-war Japan, or a dozen other obscure topics. This is, after all, the central feature of great art: Even those of us who do not fully understand still realize, in some unspeakable way, that we are in the presence of something great.

The most common accusations leveled against this film, oddly, assert alternatively that it is a cold, soulless exercise in technique or, on the other hand, that it is a soap opera, with no real substance. I think neither of those is true. There can be no question that it is easily seen as cold. Nothing really happens, by modern standards. It is merely a family that comes and goes and lives and dies. Of course, to those who accuse it of being a soap opera, that death is the foremost evidence of its manipulative guilt. But, for those who have seen it, recall the mother's stroke, or where Keizo is told to look one last time - would a soap opera elide such a supremely emotional scenes?

No, 'Tokyo Story' is neither cold nor manipulative. Rather, it slowly brings you into a family that, while perhaps totally unlike your own, is at its base just the same. Then it allows those things to happen that must someday happen to all of us - growing up, moving away, and that unspeakable, inescapable end. It is not easy; it is not obvious; but it is not obscure, either. After it all, I can only tell you this: If you have lived long enough to know how it feels to leave your parents and only realize far too late, as it seems we all do, the value of what you have left behind, then 'Tokyo Story' will reward you perfectly. And these things - we all do these very things, so 'Tokyo Story' is universal, is Art.