Word: shimonoseki
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Tokyo Story" is about the increasing contrasts between old and new Japan. And like all Ozu films, the plot is so plain, despite its variety of psychological and emotional levels, that it can be summarized as an anecdote. An old couple leave their home in the port-town of Shimonoseki their children in Tokyo. But there they are intruders in spite of a fond reception, there is no place for them in their children's homes, and they are sent away to vacation at some hot springs resort. The boisterous carryings-on of young people drive them back to Tokyo...
...Tokyo Story" is about the increasing contrasts between old and new Japan. And like all Ozu films, the plot is so plain, despite its variety of psychological and emotional levels, that it can be summarized as an anecdote. An old couple leave their home in the port-town of Shimonoseki to visit their children in Tokyo. But there they are intruders in spite of a fond reception: there is no place for them in their children's homes, and they are sent away to vacation at some hot springs resort. There, the boisterous carryings-on of young people drive them...
...hidden contrasts that are splintering the family--and all of Japanese society. He directs transitions from one locale to another by introducing each new scene with a shot not only loaded with symbolism, but prolonged to the extent that it almost becomes a still. After the opening scene in Shimonoseki, the shift to Tokyo is indicated by the stark image of smokestacks against a smutty sky, and the title "an industrial neighborhood in Tokyo." Setting the mood for each episode with similarly fitting images, Ozu unrolls a cinematic parchment of Japanese prints, the black and white photography of the film...
...managed to weave by his story. The family never speaks of "dying"; the term they use is "not living". The old man speaks of his wife as if she were yet alive and watching over him at the remove of a distance much smaller than the trainride from Shimonoseki to Tokyo...
Kishi was right about the quick victories (Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines), wrong about being able to get a quick peace. As the fortunes of war worsened, he reacted just as had his Choshu clansmen in the affair of Shimonoseki Strait. At a Cabinet meeting in April 1944 he told Tojo: "Saipan is Japan's lifeline. If Saipan falls, surrender. It is the silliest thing on earth to keep fighting after that." Tojo shouted angrily: "Don't poke your nose into the affairs of the supreme command!" Thirteen days after the bloody U.S. conquest of Saipan, Tojo...