Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story has a weird feeling, mainly due to the fact that it is shot entirely from about three feet off the ground, with a completely static camera. Although you do get used to it eventually, anytime there's a strange shot, one different from what you'd expect in that situation, you realize that it is because of the camera placement. Even through that bit of artificiality, the humanness of the picture comes through clearly. It's strange, because it's the staticness of the camera that actually tends to draw you out of the film, rather than keep you in, like it really should. Most people are so used to watching big camera movements, or different framing on shots that watching every scene from the same view is disconcerting much longer than it should be. You are actually placed on set, out of view of the camera, but on your own tatami mat, watching everything happen. That aspect of the film, once you get used to it, means that you can't draw yourself out of it afterwards, making the conclusion of the film that much more heartbreaking, because the characters were so real.

As for the actual content of the film, it's a deceptively simple story, that tells more about growing up than most films. The importance of being respectful to your parents when you are alive, as in Confucius's saying, "Be a good son while your parents are alive. None can serve his parents beyond the grave", is also clearly the message of the film. That only the daughter-in-law seems to have accepted that message, 8 years after the death of her husband in WWII, is one of the saddest aspects of the film. Ozu clearly felt that modern life was going too fast for the proper filial respect needed. Not sure how he'd handle the Japan of today, let alone the rest of the world.