Voyage à Tokyo

Titre original : Tôkyô monogatari

ÉVALUATION IMDb

8,1/10

72 k

MA NOTE

Setsuko Hara and Chishû Ryû in Voyage à Tokyo (1953)

Liretrailer4 min 16 s

1 vidéo

99+ photos

Psychological Drama Drama

Un vieux couple rend visite à ses enfants et petits-enfants en ville, mais ne reçoit que peu d'attention.Un vieux couple rend visite à ses enfants et petits-enfants en ville, mais ne reçoit que peu d'attention.Un vieux couple rend visite à ses enfants et petits-enfants en ville, mais ne reçoit que peu d'attention.

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

ÉVALUATION IMDb

8,1/10

72 k

MA NOTE

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

Film le mieux coté no 215

Prix
- 3 victoires au total

Anecdotes
The film is notable for its use of the "tatami-mat" shot, in which the camera height is low and remains largely static throughout.

Gaffes
During the scene when the character Tomi Hirayama is lying on the floor, supposedly dead, the actress playing her can clearly be seen breathing.

Citations
Kyoko: [after the rest of the family had left] I think they should have stayed a bit longer.
Noriko: But they're busy.
Kyoko: They're selfish. Demanding things and leaving like this.
Noriko: They have their own affairs.
Kyoko: But you have yours too. They're selfish.
Noriko: But Kyoko...
Kyoko: Wanting her clothes right after her death. I felt so sorry for poor mother. Even strangers would have been more considerate!
Noriko: But look Kyoko. At your age I thought so too. But children do drift away from their parents. A woman has her own life, apart from her parents, when she becomes Shige's age. She meant no harm I'm sure. They have to look after their own lives.
Kyoko: I wonder: I won't ever be like that. Then what's the point of family?
Noriko: But children become like that, gradually.
Kyoko: Then... you, too?
Noriko: I may become like that in spite of myself.
Kyoko: Isn't life disappointing?
Noriko: Yes, it is.

Connexions
Featured in Tokyo-Ga (1985)

Commentaires des utilisateurs221

Commentaire

Commentaire en vedette

9/10

The excuses we make to justify our neglect of others

An appreciation of this movie may demand some understanding of Japanese culture. The Japanese are rather reserved, and were even more reserved back in the early 1950's, when this film is set. No embracing, even of parents, children, siblings; no dramatic histrionics; even a death scene in this movie is much quieter than a Westerner might expect.

Consequently I can't really blame several reviewers here for calling this movie boring and slow-paced. But it is not at all slow-paced from a different cultural perspective. It just depends on what you're used to.

If you do take the time to watch and try to understand it, you'll find an engrossing analysis of the dynamic of a middle-class family, the rift that grows up between generations, and of the many excuses we find ourselves making to justify our neglect for others, even those dearest to us. These themes are universal, but are couched in a postwar Japanese idiom, and so probably less accessible to the average Western viewer.

I have wondered awhile about a speech at the end by Noriko, the widowed daughter-in-law, in which she denies that she's such a good person (though her actions in the movie indicate otherwise). I'm still not sure I understand her motives in saying this. For the most part, however, this movie will not leave you puzzled, but it may leave you a bit wiser, and a bit more reluctant to make those excuses.