This is supposed to be Ozu’s best film?

Tokyo Story

I am disappointed in you, Jim. Surely I will watch all the other films on the list, and I think that my irks with “Tokyo Story” is a rather personal one: While the ‘ennui’ of Jim Jarmusch films were always marvelous and never felt boring to me, “Tokyo Story” was a borefest from its beginning to… the point I stopped watching it. In fact, Pixelmatsch and I were talking about how annoyed we were with the japanese-ness and the overload of honorifics in their family (of course it is really well-made and just accentuates the pervertedness of their familial relationships) – and then, we decided to stop the film the next time she says “douzo”. This happened about 1 minute later, eek.

Besides the boredom I felt while watching the film, I was mainly unhappy about the society portrait. I totally understand what it wants to say, but I just don’t agree with it. I have never been such a badly educated brat as the children are depicted in the film, I don’t think old people are neglected, conservative and kind (most older people are still very independent and want to lead their own life) – and I especially think that most asian people are better children to their parents than the main characters in the film. Sure, this film is supposed to exaggerate a little bit, but I don’t feel like this is an adequate portrait of my family life or the family lives of people surrounding me.

At some point, I think I will finish the film, although I feel like this is nothing compared to the funny, witty and comparably suspenseful Ukigusa. It would just make me feel horrible if I hadn’t finished it, hm.