Tokyo Story is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujiro Ozu, following an elderly couple from rural Japan who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find their son and daughter too consumed by their own busy lives to spend much time with them, while their widowed daughter in law treats them with more warmth than their own children do. The film was initially considered by its own studio too Japanese to export, and only reached international audiences after screenings in London in 1957 and New York in 1972. It is now widely regarded as Ozu's masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made, and it topped the once a decade Sight and Sound directors' poll of the greatest films of all time in 2012.
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Original Language Release Year FAQs
Did Tokyo Story borrow its story from an earlier film?
Critics compare it to Leo McCarey's 1937 film Make Way for Tomorrow, which Ozu is said to have recast and adapted.
Critics have noted a close resemblance to an American film. Arthur Nolletti Jr. compared Tokyo Story to Leo McCarey's 1937 film Make Way for Tomorrow, and the shared ground is plain: both films follow an elderly couple whose grown children treat them as a burden, both are structured as journeys in which the couple are passed from one household to another, and both explore sibling self-centeredness and parental disillusionment. The comparison draws on David Bordwell's view that Ozu was recasting the American film, adapting it rather than copying it. Both belong to what Japanese cinema calls shomin-geki, films about the everyday lives of the lower middle classes.
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Source Tokyo Story (Wikipedia)
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Source Tokyo Story (Wikipedia)
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Sources
1. Wikidata: Tokyo Story
2. Tokyo Story (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead paragraph, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Story
Tokyo Story (Japanese: 東京物語, Hepburn: Tōkyō Monogatari) is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama, about an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children.
Tokyo Story, Description, original language
Tokyo Story is a 1953 Japanese film directed by Yasujiro Ozu, following an elderly couple from rural Japan who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find their son and daughter too consumed by their own busy lives to spend much time with them, while their widowed daughter in law treats them with more warmth than their own children do.
- Wikipedia: 'it won the inaugural Sutherland Trophy the following year' (checked 2026-09-26)
In Medium: Film, Article lead sentence
Tokyo Story (Japanese: 東京物語, Hepburn: Tōkyō Monogatari) is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama, about an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children.
Created By: Yasujiro Ozu, Infobox
director = Yasujirō Ozu
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