An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their children and are confronted by indifference, ingratitude and selfishness. When the parents are packed off to a resort by their impatient children, the film deepens into an unbearably moving meditation on mortality.

Tôkyô monogatari (1953)
  • Rating: (12,076 votes)
  • Runtime:136 minutes
  • Director: Yasujirô Ozu
  • Country:Japan
  • Actors:
    Shukishi Hirayama
    Chishû Ryû
    Tomi Hirayama
    Chieko Higashiyama
    Noriko Hirayama
    Setsuko Hara
    Shige Kaneko
    Haruko Sugimura
    Koichi Hirayama
    Sô Yamamura
    Fumiko Hirayama - his wife
    Kuniko Miyake
    Kyôko Hirayama
    Kyôko Kagawa
    Sanpei Numata
    Eijirô Tôno
    Kurazo Kaneko
    Nobuo Nakamura
    Keiso Hirayama
    Shirô Osaka
  • Genre:Drama
  • Producer:
    Takeshi Yamamoto
    producer  
  • Plots: An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their children and are confronted by indifference, ingratitude and selfishness. When the parents are packed off to a resort by their impatient children, the film deepens into an unbearably moving meditation on mortality Written by Paul Watabe
Tôkyô monogatari
  • User's comment:The excuses we make to justify our neglect of others by KFL

    An appreciation of this movie may demand some understanding of Japanese culture. The Japanese are rather reserved, and were even more reserved back in the early 1950's, when this film is set. No embracing, even of parents, children, siblings; no dramatic histrionics; even a death scene in this movie is much quieter than a Westerner might expect.

    Consequently I can't really blame several reviewers here for calling this movie boring and slow-paced. But it is not at all slow-paced from a different cultural perspective. It just depends on what you're used to.

    If you do take the time to watch and try to understand it, you'll find an engrossing analysis of the dynamic of a middle-class family, the rift that grows up between generations, and of the many excuses we find ourselves making to justify our neglect for others, even those dearest to us. These themes are universal, but are couched in a postwar Japanese idiom, and so probably less accessible to the average Western viewer.

    I have wondered awhile about a speech at the end by Noriko, the widowed daughter-in-law, in which she denies that she's such a good person (though her actions in the movie indicate otherwise). I'm still not sure I understand her motives in saying this. For the most part, however, this movie will not leave you puzzled, but it may leave you a bit wiser, and a bit more reluctant to make those excuses.


  • Quotes: Kyoko: Isn't life disappointing? Noriko: [smiles] Yes, it is.
  • Also known as: Tokyo Story (Finland), Tokyo Story (Greece - reissue title), Tokyo Story (International - English title), Tokyo Story (Norway - imdb display title), Tokyo Story (USA), Die Reise nach Tokio (Germany), Die Reise nach Tokio (West Germany), Tokijska prica (Serbia - imdb display title), Tokijska prica (Yugoslavia - imdb display title, Croatian title), Conte de Tokyo (France), Ensimmäinen matka (Finland - TV title), Episkepsi sto Tokyo (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title), Era uma Vez em Tóquio (Brazil), Föräldrarna (Sweden), Los cuentos de Tokyo (Spain), Taxidi sto Tokyo (Greece - reissue title), Tokiói történet (Hungary), Tokijska opowiesc (Poland), Una storia di Tokyo (Italy), Viagem a Tóquio (Portugal - imdb display title), Viaggio a Tokyo (Italy), Viaje a Tokyo (Spain), Voyage à Tokyo (France),

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