Tôkyô tawâ: Okan to boku to, tokidoki, oton (2007)

Leaving her alcoholic husband, Eiko takes their son Masaya away from Tokyo and back to her hometown in a Kyushu rural mining community. She toils to support him though many years of ... See full summary »

Director:

Joji Matsuoka

Writers:

Lily Franky (novel), Suzuki Matsuo (screenplay)

Stars:

Jô Odagiri, Kirin Kiki, Yayako Uchida

6 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jô Odagiri	...	Boku
Kirin Kiki	...	Okan
Yayako Uchida	...	Okan - young
Takako Matsu	...	Mizue
Kaoru Kobayashi	...	Oton
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tamae Ando
YosiYosi Arakawa
Akira Emoto	...	Doctor from Sasazuka Clinic
Junko Emoto
Chisako Hara
Hiroyuki Hirayama	...	Isoyama
Itsuji Itao
Ayumi Ito	...	Tamami
Ryô Iwamatsu	...	Editor on the phone (voice)
Ryo Katsuji	...	Hiraguri

Storyline

Leaving her alcoholic husband, Eiko takes their son Masaya away from Tokyo and back to her hometown in a Kyushu rural mining community. She toils to support him though many years of schooling even after he wastes his time while studying art in a Tokyo university. After graduation he struggles to find work and finally pulls his life together for his mother's sake, ultimately ending up with multiple jobs as an illustrator and even as the host of a sexually-themed talk show on radio. When Eiko becomes ill with cancer, Masaya invites her to live with him in back in Tokyo where the roles of support are reversed.

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Plot Keywords:

place name in title | city name in title | based on novel

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp] Shochiku [jp]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

14 April 2007 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dentsu, Eisei Gekijo Company, Filmmakers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

142 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The young Okan (mother) is played by Yayako Uchida who is the daughter of Kirin Kiki who played the old Okan.

User Reviews

Ordinary life; profound insight

"Tokyo Tower: mom and me, and sometimes dad" is Masaya Nakagawa's (stage name Lily Franky) bestseller that has been compared to Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Woods" in terms of popularity in Japan. This auto-biographical book focusing on Nakagawa's endearing relationship had with his mother has now been made into a wonderful movie.

Clearly, director Joji Matsouka has made a very conscious effort to steer clear of pretentious, sappy scenes and the result is a movie that is so close to real life that it touches you on a different, more sublime level. He has wisely avoided glorifying the mother into a stereotyped "ideal woman" persona. Instead, we see in her a childlike simplicity that sometimes verges on silliness. Nor is she a flawless human being. Her embracing the son's university graduation certificate as he most important asset is a little outdated in this day and age. But all that makes her ever so human, real and endearing.

Two echoing scenes could have easily succumbed to contrived tearjerkers but didn't – mother seeing teenage son off to go to college in Tokyo, and son meeting mother in Tokyo 15 years later, bringing her to live with him. Emotion is kept in low simmer and never allowed to boil over. In the latter scene, the heart-warming music does a lot.

Neither does the director shy away from showing at great length the devastating agony of the mother and son's fight against her terminal gastric cancer. Again, the story is told plainly, with minimum deliberate manipulation of the audiences' emotion. This sequence reminds me particularly of a similar situation in Norwegian Woods where a daughter takes care of a dying father.

Unlike the depressingly tragic story of Korea's Cannes winner (best actress) "Miyang" (2006) which I saw recently, Tokyo Tower is a story of an ordinary life with its share of joys and woes. There is no villain. Indeed, the father, an alcoholic artist, deserts his wife but there is no malice. Towards the end you can't help but love this irresponsible man a little. There is sparkling humor throughout the movie. Both actresses who play the mother (in two stages of her life) are simply marvelous. Playing the son in a credible performance is Jo Odaggiri who was the dashingly handsome ninja in "Shinobi" (2005). In a lesser but still important role as his girlfriend is Takako Matsu who is just as fresh and charming as she was in "April story" (1998).