Tokyo Twilight (1957)

Two sisters find out the existence of their long-lost mother, but the younger cannot take the truth of being abandoned as a child.

Director:

Yasujirô Ozu

Writers:

Kôgo Noda, Yasujirô Ozu

Stars:

Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishû Ryû

Cast

Credited cast:
Setsuko Hara	...	Takako Numata
Ineko Arima	...	Akiko Sugiyama
Chishû Ryû	...	Shûkichi Sugiyama
Isuzu Yamada	...	Kisako Aijima
Teiji Takahashi	...	Noboru Kawaguchi
Masami Taura	...	Kenji Kimura
Haruko Sugimura	...	Shigeko Takeuchi
Sô Yamamura	...	Seki Sekiguchi
Kinzô Shin	...	Yasuo Numata
Kamatari Fujiwara	...	Gihei Shimomura, noodle vendor
Nobuo Nakamura	...	Sakae Aiba
Seiji Miyaguchi	...	Policeman
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eiko Miyoshi	...	Midwife

Storyline

Two sisters live with their father. The younger sister is embroiled in an affair and becomes pregnant. The elder sister has run away from her husband and returned with her child to her parent's home. Both sisters are astonished when their mother, long thought dead, turns up alive. The sisters are even more stunned when they learn what their mother's life has been.

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Plot Keywords:

long lost mother | japan | post war | sake | mahjong | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

19 July 1972 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tokyo Twilight

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shochiku

Technical Specs

Runtime:

140 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in I Lived, But... (1983)

User Reviews

Ozu's darkest hour, a masterpiece

A deeply, uncharacteristically dark film, even among other "dark" Ozu films (i.e. A HEN IN THE WIND, EARLY SPRING) that may require a theatrical setting for the viewer to be fully absorbed in the strange, dark textures of the world Ozu presents. I myself was pretty alienated for the first 1/2 hour or so until the wintry chill of the mise-en-scene (brilliantly suggested in the slightly hunched-over postures of the characters) found its way into me instead of keeping me at arm's length. And from there this story builds in unwavering intensity as it follows a family on a slow slide into dissolution: a passive, judgmental patriarch (played by Chisyu Ryu, subverting his gently accepting persona in a way that is shocking), his elder daughter, a divorcee with a single child (Setsuko Hara, playing brilliantly against type -- who'd have thought the sweetest lady in '50s Japan had such an evil scowl?), and his younger daughter (Ineko Arima, a revelation), secretly pregnant and searching for her boyfriend, get a major shakeup when their absent mother, who the father had told them was long dead, re-enters their lives. Ozu's vision of post-war Japan and how the sins of one generation get passed on to the next, illustrated brilliantly by a series of parallels drawn sensitively between characters, manages to be both compassionate and scathing -- even a seemingly cop-out happy denouement is embedded with a poison pill. A masterpiece, without question, one that throws all of Ozu's depictions of modern society in a beautifully devastating new light.