I just finished my first viewing of Tokyo Story (also my first Ozu film)and I have to admit it was at first hard to get into but halfway through the movie I got the taste of it. Anyway I couldn't help to notice some similarities in relation to the indifferent nature of the characters in the film to Kurosawa's "Ikiru". Both films were made around the same time. Personally I liked Ikiru better, what do you think?
shareOn my opinion "Ikiru" is the better one, mainly because of Takashi Shimura's easily best ever performance on film, plus "Ikiru" is by far superior when speaking strictly in cinematic terms, among Kurosawa's top 5, where camera work is much more creative. However, story wise, Ozu's "Tokyo Story" delivers much more punch even in its simplicity, which is only enhanced by Ozu's rigid motionless camera and the trademark tatami shots.
shareIkiru, hands down.
Tokyo Story, supposedly inspired by Make Way for Tomorrow, just doesn't resonate like either film. I don't see the "disrepsect" in TS as in MWFT - the children may have groused about the parents, but they did try to entertain them, even sending them to a really nice spa. In MWFT, the children actually abused them, leaving the father, separated from his wife, to sleep on the couch when he was ill, and forcing them to live thousands of miles apart in their last years. Being angry when your drunkard father comes back plastered, and bringing back a drunk stranger too, is disrespect?
I bawl like a baby at the ends of Ikiru and Make Way for Tomorrow (and The Burmese Harp as well), but
Tokyo Story just leaves me cold.
I wonder if the "disrespect" we see in Tokyo Story, that doesn't seem disrespectful to us at all, is considered highly disrespectful to the Japanese. Just a thought.
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"Give it up to God, for Christ's sake!"