I only got to watch this film for the first time ever about a month ago, as it is being rescreened at the OTHER CINEMA in London. I was told by my ex-Japanese teacher about 5 years ago back in secondary school that it was one of the most beautiful films ever made. I was only just getting into foreign cinema (i.e. anything not from Hollywood really) and wasn't sure what to expect and I wasn't willing to take the risk of being possibly bored to death with "old classics". I read many reviews written by the random public from websites such as IMDB, and I found too many unfavourable comments about it, so I thought I'd give it a miss... how wrong was I to conform to other peoples' opinions!
I'm going to contradict myself now immediately after implying that one shouldn't conform to other people, because I am now going to say that it is a wonderful film and you should take my recommendation and watch it whenever you have a chance. Because of people like me, there will always be people that harshly criticise this masterpiece of a film, but because of these harsh words there will always be people like me who will praise it just a bit too much.
Although in those last two paragraphs there was virtually nothing with regards to the theme and plot and acting of Tokyo Monogatari, there isn't really a need to express the overall beauty of the film, since it is a near perfect work of art from Yasujiro Ozu. His camera technique is so unique that one can immediately spot an Ozu film from a mile away. Tokyo Monogatari is that deals with family issues (Ozu's theme in all of his films), and how society messes things up so much that there is nothing that can be done to solve the problems. It leaves the viewer with a strange feeling of desperation to do something good for your parents. It may not be the most emotional and dramatic of films, but it certainly provokes a flood of emotions for the viewer to dream about in his/her sleep.
I would give this a definite 10/10, and I would rate Ozu as one of the greatest directors of all time. Another two films I recommend by Ozu are FLOATING WEEDS and OHAYO.
I'm going to contradict myself now immediately after implying that one shouldn't conform to other people, because I am now going to say that it is a wonderful film and you should take my recommendation and watch it whenever you have a chance. Because of people like me, there will always be people that harshly criticise this masterpiece of a film, but because of these harsh words there will always be people like me who will praise it just a bit too much.
Although in those last two paragraphs there was virtually nothing with regards to the theme and plot and acting of Tokyo Monogatari, there isn't really a need to express the overall beauty of the film, since it is a near perfect work of art from Yasujiro Ozu. His camera technique is so unique that one can immediately spot an Ozu film from a mile away. Tokyo Monogatari is that deals with family issues (Ozu's theme in all of his films), and how society messes things up so much that there is nothing that can be done to solve the problems. It leaves the viewer with a strange feeling of desperation to do something good for your parents. It may not be the most emotional and dramatic of films, but it certainly provokes a flood of emotions for the viewer to dream about in his/her sleep.
I would give this a definite 10/10, and I would rate Ozu as one of the greatest directors of all time. Another two films I recommend by Ozu are FLOATING WEEDS and OHAYO.