Things to Watch For in Tokyo Story

The following are some things to watch for as you view Tokyo Story a second time:

• Note the left to right orientation on the first few shots of the film. Then how the train is shown moving from right to left.
  
  
• Note how Ozu uses "pillow shots" like the pillow words in Japanese poetry, separating his scenes with brief, evocative images from everyday life. He likes trains, clouds, smoke, clothes hanging on a line, empty streets, small architectural details, banners blowing in the wind (he painted most of the banners in his movies himself). These are used to reinforce Ozu's consistent theme of "dailiness."
  
  
• Note Ozu's distinctive “tatami-mat” shot, in which the camera height is low and almost never moves. Some say this is approximately the view you would have if sitting on a tatami-mat, though, in fact, it is a bit lower. He actually used a raised set and a short tripod to create the effect.
  
  
• Note how Ozu allows continuity errors and uses a complete 360 degrees in filming as opposed to the typical American 180 degree rule. 
  
  
• Note how Ozu almost always uses a direct cut.  It's rare to see a dissolve, a fade, or a wipe in an Ozu film. Also note the corridor or hallway shots that are typical of an Ozu film.
  
  
• Note the two montage scenes in Tokyo Story -- one for sightseeing and one during the funeral. 
  
  
• Note how Ozu rarely moves the camera. One exception is the tracking shot of the grandparents walking after they return unexpectedly early from Atami when Shige essentially tells them they need to find somewhere else to stay for the night because she is entertaining the other beauticians.
  
  
• As Roger Ebert notes in his review of the film, " Every single shot is intended to have a perfect composition of its own, even if that means there are continuity errors. All the shots are framed in some way. In the foreground of the interior shots, perhaps tucked in a corner, is a little teapot. Ozu loves that teapot. It's like the red signature stamp of a Japanese woodblock artist; it is his maker's mark."
  
  
• Note how Ozu likes to film his characters side by side. Instead of over-the-shoulder compositions, he likes two or three characters all in a row. If this causes violations of the eyeline rules (sometimes they don't seem to be looking at one another when they speak), he doesn't care. The side by side positioning implies balance rather than confrontation.
  
  
• Note the generation gaps in the film. The grandchildren don't know the grandparents. The children have grown distant from their parents and the parents are disappointed in their children. 
  
  
• Note how Noriko is introduced into the film. Note her genuine concern for her in-laws in comparison to the Koichi, Shige, and Keizo who all say the right things but whose actions are at odds with their words. 
  
  
• Note the heartfelt gifts Noriko and Tomi give one another.
  
  
• Note Ozu's use of narrative ellipsis in the film. Many times, scenes that we might expect to be big scenes occur off screen and are elided (like . Similarly, some things are spoken about, but we never see them happen (just like in real life).
  
  
• Note the circularity of Ozu's narrative. We end back where we started the film, but with a difference (Tomi is dead). In Tokyo Story, life is circular yet change is inevitable, a reflection of the Japanese concept of mono no aware, an awareness of the impermanence of things.
  
  
• Note Ozu's philosophy of life.  As Noriko tells Kyoko at the end of the film, life is disappointing but that is inevitable. And, as we see in the scene earlier between Shukichi and Noriko, life is a mixture of joy and sorrow.
  
  
• Trivia: Tokyo Story has twice appeared in Sight and Sound magazine's polls of directors and critics as one of the top 10 films of all time (it was 3rd in 1992 and 5th in 2002). It has a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes out of 21 critic reviews, with also the highest average critical score on the website at 9.7/10.
  
  
• More Trivia: The great actress Setsuko Hara (Noriko) is called "the Eternal Virgin" in Japan and is a symbol of the golden era of Japanese cinema of the 1950s. She suddenly quit acting in 1963 (the same year as Ozu's death), and has since led a secluded life in Kamakura, refusing all interviews and photographs (leading Japanese-cinema scholar Donald Richie to refer to her as the "Greta Garbo of Japan"). Chishu Ryu (Shukichi) appeared in no fewer than fifty-two out of fifty-four of Ozu's films.
  
  
• Still More Trivia: Ozu, known for his themes of marriage, the family, and, particularly, the theme of the relationship between generations, never married or had children. He lived with his mother until she died, just two years before his own death. Ozu was also well-known for his drinking. In fact, Ozu and his co-screenwriter Kogo Noda used to measure the progress of their scripts by how many bottles of sake they had drunk. Occasionally, visitors to his grave pay their respects by leaving cans and bottles of alcoholic drink.