217 Tokyo Story

[kinjitsu]

I believe it's Onomichi. I've got some more comparisons coming soon, courtesy of Jeff Kuo who spent days carefully working these out in June this year.

Just curious, but is Jeff Kuo working on a photo exhibit or book on Tokyo Story, or did he take these shots for his own entertainment?

[peerpee]

Pure geekdom! -- Would make a nice book though.

[Pinback]

I believe it's Onomichi. I've got some more comparisons coming soon, courtesy of Jeff Kuo who spent days carefully working these out in June this year.

Are these pictures going to be a feature on your Ozu website, or are you just posting them here?

[peerpee]

That's the ultimate plan, yes -- but it's quicker to post them here for the time being as I'm a bit busy.

[yukiyuki]

which of your guys putting Tokyo Story as your fave movie of all time?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone.

My name is Jeffrey Kuo.

I have decided to join the group in order to express my pleasant surprise concerning the level of positive response and enthusiasm of my 'then and now' photograph that Nick ('peerpee') kindly posted for me.

The photograph was taken on 30 May 2005 and was looking east along the Onomichi Central pier, which is in front of the Onomichi Chamber of Commerce.

My first Ozu experience was on 12 February 1994 at the Cornerhouse cinema in Manchester, where I saw 'Tokyo Story'. I was so deeply impressed and moved, that I immediately saw the next showing, which started about 15 minutes later. Where possible, I try and see as many of his films and attended most of the New York centenary in 2003.

I have been to Onomichi on three separate occasions. It is not just Ozu that draws me to this place, but the beauty of the town, the people, the setting and the food, especially the seafood. Additionally, it is in close proximity to the stunning Inland Sea and the famous Shimanami cycle route from Onomichi to Imabari. Most importantly, it is virtually untouched by tourists.

If one should visit the town, Ozu's choice of location becomes apparent. For example:

1) The timeless effect of an Ozu film was represented in 'Tokyo Story' by the gentle beat of the shipping tugs, interspersed by the occasional fog horn. These sounds are exactly the same today.
2) The "Japanese Flavour" of an Ozu film may be witnessed along the Temple Walk, which extends from east to west of the town. The walk enables one to pass shrines, pagodas and more than 20 temples. However, the real gem is that between each site, it weaves through traditional Japanese houses. It was along this path, near the Saigoji temple that Ozu filmed Kyoko (Kyoko Kagawa) walking along the narrow path.

I could continue for ages about Onomichi and the surrounding region, but I'll probably bore you. However, if anyone wishes to visit the region, I would be happy to provide advice on accommodation, food, shopping, things to do and especially the 'Tokyo Story' sites.

I have sent Nick a CD-R of:

1) Approximately a dozen 'then and now' photographs.
2) The Onomichi Cinema Museum, which is rich in Ozu memorabilia, such as his camera and stool.
3) The Kamakura region of South Tokyo, which includes Kita-Kamakura station, his tomb at the Engaku temple and the Daibutsu, that was featured in 'Early Summer'.

He has promised to add some of this to his website.

[Michael Kerpan]

Thanks for providing this Onomichi report. It is greatly appreciated -- and we look forward to seeing some more pictures!

[ando]

I saw this film for the first time last night. I was, naturally, impressed and drawn to the emotional plight of the older couple. It proved far more of a melodrama than I had expected, though. I'm beginning to acquire a taste for Ozu, though some of his longer held shots, like those of Setsuko Hara (Noriko), beg for a less generalized interpretation. It's only a quibble, but I did find her characterization a bit broad at first. Thank goodness we get a closer examination of her later in the film. We actually get to know her character far more than we do of others (Haruko Sugimura as Shige, for instance), who almost seem slighted because we don't see them in more intimate situations.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

Courtesy the FAMILY Blog

[Steven H]

Thanks for posting that, I like a lot of Ware's stuff. Does anyone else think Chishu put some some weight for that illustration, though?

[HerrSchreck]

The Chishu cartoon actually reminds me more of Kokuten Kodo in Early Summer (the half-deaf old uncle).

[Grand Illusion]

Just saw this for the first time.

I'm wondering how a film so well blocked, framed, and wonderfully poetic in the wide shots, can be so horribly framed and artificially performed in the mediums.

Why does Ozu allow his actors in wide angles to perform as they would in reality (i.e. not always delivering lines staring into the other actor's eyes), yet in the mediums dialogue is only delivered staring at one point straight ahead off-camera or staring directly at the other actor? This effect is made even worse by the center framing, which gives the illusion of looking into the camera. You'll lose count if you try numbering the shots that begin with a profile, then have the character turn his neck and deliver his lines center frame.

The shit-eating grin that Noriko, the widow, hid behind also came across as such a forced indicator that it really hurts her thread of the film. I'm not expecting Cassavetes naturalism here, but a lot of the choices here were unintuitive and fake.

Overall, the story was well told, especially when it's being told from far away. And the relationships between the characters, if not the characters themselves, were poignant. But a lot of the performances and abundance of terrible medium shots really kept this from being a masterpiece in my eyes.

[domino harvey]

Well, this thread's going to be unreadable for a couple days

[Grand Illusion]

Three posts up and there hadn't been a post made since 2007.

[ellipsis7]

At its simplest, Ozu invented much of his own film grammar, and did not follow conventional (Western) film grammar - so he did not feel it absolutely necessary to match eyelines or shots, shoot masters, medium shots and closeups of the same action, or cross cut and not 'cross the line', he also inserted 'pillow shots' (shots of objects without the characters) into his decoupage - all in all very liberating... Whole books have been written about this, if you want to know more...

[T99]

Ozu is like Bresson, Dreyer or Antonioni. You have to see a couple of their films to grasp their language. The first time I saw Tokyo Story I was also only mildly impressed. Nowadays it's one of my favorite films.

Nick Wrigley's article is a pretty good introduction.

[Michael Kerpan]

Hara's "forced smiles" are an essential element in presentation of the character of Noriko.

Grand Illusion, how much classic Japanese cinema have you seen (not counting Kurosawa and sword fight films)?

Ellipsis7 -- Ozu's methods are not nearly so atypical of Japanese home dramas (made by other directors) of the same era as Western critics have believed. He might be a bit more rigorous -- but he was not creating techniques ex nihilo.

[HerrSchreck]

horribly framed and artificially performed

The shit-eating grin that Noriko, the widow, hid behind also came across as such a forced indicator that it really hurts her thread of the film.

the choices here were unintuitive and fake.

terrible medium shots really kept this from being a masterpiece in my eyes.

No... won't. I'm just going to go play Pearls Before Swine for the jillionth time.

[Narshty]

I find Setsuko Hara's incessant grinning creepy as hell, cultural differences be damned.

When Chishu Ryu does it though, I want to give him a big hug and a mug of tea.

[Tommaso]

I find Setsuko Hara's incessant grinning creepy as hell, cultural differences be damned.

I agree with you, and though I hate to say it, I think it might be Ozu's 'fault'. It also happens in her other films with Ozu. I wouldn't consider her the beautiful woman she was if I hadn't seen her in "The Idiot" and "No regrets for our youth" (or even Fanck's "Tochter des Samurai").

Seriously - before everyone bangs me on the head - I wonder whether the specific playing of hers and a more than certain 'plainness' of her appearance in the Ozu films stem from the conventions of the Japanese home drama? I couldn't really get into the MoC Naruse films with her, for example, and for similar reasons. Did this type of film consciously avoid the 'shining stardom appearance' of female characters that we are used to from Hollywood and other western filmmaking, but also, in a different way, from Mizoguchis films? However sordid or critical of Japanese society Mizo could get occasionally, he always took care of making his female protagonists look as attractive as possible (no, not just the geishas where this would make obvious sense). And Ozu, on the other hand, also cared for making his women attractive in an early film like "Dragnet Girl" and even in some of his late films NOT starring Hara.

[Steven H]

Ozu had a daringly stylized take on cinema, and that's what most people here love him for. I imagine he had a similar feelings for actors that Bresson did, seeing them as puppets for the most part. He had actors reciting dialogue and doing retakes repeatedly in a similar fashion to avoid melodramatic overacting, I suppose. Did he overreach? I don't think so. His films have a rhythm of their own, and no amount of homage can do it justice.

As for Hara's "Noriko", I think many actresses of the period plastered fake smiles on their faces, because it was how things were done and realistic. I think it was Naruse who said that women were natural actors because they were born to pretend they're something they're not anyway. If it's creepy to you, maybe it should be. There's a lot about the film that I believe should be enigmatic and unnerving and "Noriko" basically says so herself in the film towards the end saying she's a horrible person. I don't believe this was fishing for compliments.

edited for clarity's sake!

[Narshty]

When I say "creepy", I mean off-putting from the film almost as a whole. I'm using Setsuko Hara as a scapegoat, though. I just can't get on with Ozu; every time, after a politely attentive first 25 minutes or so, I find my attention span being ground down. The minimalism of form and content, however elegant, is like spending two hours nibbling on cream crackers. Another problem is that the small, undisclosed pains and decisions that power Ozu's films are so familiar from everyday life, they don't really register as compelling drama. It's the same old, same old - a hindrance for transporting oneself to the point of empathy, and by the time the emotional wave finally breaks I'm too disconnected to care.

[Michael Kerpan]

Narshty -- the very things that "put you off" Ozu are what make him my favorite director. It is because the problems he deals with are so familiar to everyday life that I find the films compelling. I find it very hard to take Kurosawa's fantasies seriously (though I have learned to appreciate most of them -- for other reasons).

Hara would typically have been considered a very (physically) attractive individual in Ozu's films (barring Tokyo Twilight, perhaps, where this would have been beside the point in any event). And It was the Hara of Ozu that _I_ found incredibly attractive and appealing (I only sought her out in other films because I was already totally captivated).

[Mr Sausage]

Another problem is that the small, undisclosed pains and decisions that power Ozu's films are so familiar from everyday life,

A lot of people seem to like seeing their own lives on the big screen.

I think I like Ozu's films because those "small, undisclosed pains and decisions" are less common in film than broad decisions and large pains. So there's some novelty in it.

[Grand Illusion]

Grand Illusion, how much classic Japanese cinema have you seen (not counting Kurosawa and sword fight films)?

I'm quite a fan of what Mizoguchi I've seen. The Fallen Women box set is en route to my apartment. Obviously, Kurosawa, and I swear I've seen a Naruse, but I can't remember it for the life of me.


Anyway, I absolutely enjoy the little pains, but take a Kurosawa film (sans swords) in Ikiru. What a beautiful, nuanced performance the lead gives and what humanity and truth it lends to the film. I can even handle more stylized acting such as in Miz's Ugetsu or Sansho. I mean, women don't always actually collapse to the floor in grief, but the performances just came across as stylized not phony.

In Tokyo Story, again, further hurt by the center framing and rigid blocking, the performances were wooden and predictable. I shouldn't be able to predict the exact mark an actor is going to turn and deliver his lines. This drains the spontaneity of a performance.

Perhaps this is because Ozu treats his actors as puppets. And, trust me, I have no love lost for either Dreyer or Bresson. Performance and performance directing is an art and a skill. Actors are the humanity in film, the lyrics in song. Without them, you just have moving photographs. A director should be skilled in all aspects of cinema. The cinematographic look, the pace of the editing, the design of the sound, and even the performances of the actors.

To aspire to show life itself, and then do so in the most rigid, formal, and lifeless way, is counterintuitive. I recently re-watched Kore-eda's Nobody Knows, which shows much of everyday life, but the skillful interpretations by the actors bring you into the drudgery rather than pushing you away.

I'm not asking for a strict code of Western filmmaking. 50's Hollywood is pretty banal to me, to be honest. I love life in the little details. I even enjoyed most of Tokyo Story for the detachment in the wides and the overall tale. But if the director is going to cut close, going to bring me into the life of his players, I am absolutely asking for believable performances. Line delivery beyond a low-budget horror flick.

Again, this is all personal, but I wouldn't give a director a pass if his pacing was awful or his visuals were all ugly, so I don't see why I should be asked the same for performance directing. If you can buy an actor having only two points on screen that he can look at while reciting lines, then this film obviously increases its power immensely. Personally, I cannot, and I'll reserve the term "masterpiece" for those works that combine all facets of storytelling and filmmaking.