Tokyo Chorus (1931)

A married Tokyo man faces unemployment after standing up for an older colleague.

Director:

Yasujirô Ozu

Writers:

Komatsu Kitamura (original story), Kôgo Noda (original story)

Stars:

Tokihiko Okada, Emiko Yagumo, Hideo Sugawara

Cast

Cast overview:
Tokihiko Okada	...	Shinji Okajima
Emiko Yagumo	...	Tsuma Sugako (His wife)
Hideo Sugawara	...	Sono Chounan (First Son)
Hideko Takamine	...	Sono Choujo (First Daughter)
Tatsuo Saitô	...	Omura Sensei (Teacher)
Chôko Iida	...	Sensei no tusma (Mrs. Omura)
Takeshi Sakamoto	...	Rou-Shain Yamada (Old employee)
Reikô Tani	...	Shachou (Company President)
Ken'ichi Miyajima	...	Hisho (Secretary)
Isamu Yamaguchi	...	Kaisha no Douryou (An Employee)

Storyline

Mr. Omura, a teacher, leads a group of male students in an outdoor drill. One slight, comic young man, Shinji Okajima, has no shirt under his jacket; he scratches at fleas and makes faces behind Omura's back. Jump ahead several years, Shinji is married with three children. He sells insurance, and on the company's annual bonus day, he protests when an older worker is fired. Shinji loses his own job as a result, and he and his wife must find ways to cope. Lassitude, pride, the demands and needs of young children, and relationships from bygone school days all play a part in the outcome of their struggle.

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Plot Keywords:

unemployment | protest | job | insurance | bonus | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Release Date:

December 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tokyo Chorus

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shochiku Kinema

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the top 10 of Kinema Junpo's Top Japanese Movies of 1931.

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Quotes

Omura Sensei (Teacher): I've found a job for you. Teaching English at a girl's school. Do you speak English?

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Connections

Referenced in I Lived, But... (1983)

User Reviews

nope

I enjoyed this as much as any Ozu movie that I've ever seen. I think the silent medium inclined the director more to light-heartedness, not that it was ever absent from his films. Near-slapstick leads to genuine pathos on a much more naturalistic way than it ever would in, say, a Chaplin film. Ozu always recognized and appreciated a great face. In his silent films, however, his reliance on the face is much more active, using lighting and framing to convey expression as much as the performers' inherent ability. Ozu may be unique in that the performances in his silent films seem more like "movie acting" in the western sense than do those in his talkies, in which the actors seem more indebted to the tradition of the Japanese stage. But then again, everything about Ozu's early films seems more western. He had not yet become the mandarin we know him as from his peak years. The director's sense of humanity, however, was fully on display. His silent faces rank with Dreyer's, or Rembrandt's for expressiveness.