Yasujiro Ozu

Tokyo Story -- Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story follows an aging couple on their journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in bustling, postwar Tokyo. From a simple tale unfolds one of the greatest of all Japanese films.

Later in his career, Ozu started becoming increasingly sympathetic with the younger generation, a shift that was cemented in EQUINOX FLOWER, his gorgeously detailed first color film, about an old-fashioned father and his newfangled daughter.

Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari) follows an aging couple, Tomi and Sukichi, on their journey from their rural village to visit their two married children in bustling, postwar Tokyo. Their reception is disappointing: too busy to entertain them, their children send them off to a health spa. After Tomi falls ill she and Sukichi return home, while the children, grief-stricken, hasten to be with her. From a simple tale unfolds one of the greatest of all Japanese films. Starring Ozu regulars Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara, the film reprises one of the director’s favorite themes—that of generational conflict—in a way that is quintessentially Japanese and yet so universal in its appeal that it continues to resonate as one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces.