"I always thought Tokyo was far away, but I started from Onomichi yesterday, and I met you today. People still have a long life." The mother sighed happily in the conversation with Noriko. At the beginning of the film, the two old people are going to Tokyo to visit their children and are packing their luggage at home. The neighbors pass by the window and say enviously, "Your children are really promising, they are so happy." Zhou Ji replied modestly: "Where, not yet. See you." His face was already full of pride and joy. Two elderly people who may have never traveled far, finally went to the big city Tokyo to visit their children. So they carefully prepared each item and set foot on the train. The journey was long and tiring, but when they first arrived at the eldest son's family, their daughter and daughter-in-law came to visit, caring and greeting, chatting and laughing, and having a good time, so they didn't feel so tired, and they were looking forward to the next trip to Tokyo.
The turning point came when the first trip failed. A few of the family were ready and waiting to go out, but fortunately there was a patient suddenly, and the plan could only go to waste. Xiao Shi felt very lost, and kept losing his temper, complaining about his father's change. In fact, why not lose the old couple's mood? But they understood their son without a single complaint. When I got to my daughter's house, I found that my daughter was also busy, and her daughter was not considerate to them.
In the last visit to Tokyo, daughter-in-law Noriko took them there on leave; when they went to Atami, their sons and daughters pooled money to send them together instead of accompanying them; Atami is a place that young people like, and the old couple couldn’t sleep because of the noise at night. Sleep. Finally, they felt tired, "I have played in Tokyo, and Atami has seen it", "Let's go home."
During this trip to Tokyo, the elderly felt all kinds of cramps and inconveniences. They knew that it was not easy for their children to work hard in the big city, and they never wanted to put too much burden on them. The second daughter is the most unfilial child, unwilling to take the elderly to play with, and she bluntly complained about the inconvenience caused by her parents returning from Atami too early, so that her parents "finally became homeless". It is ironic that he has raised so many children and is finally "homeless" in Tokyo! The longing and pride at the beginning of the film is probably long gone. It's just that they have to force a smile, tell their children, and tell themselves, "Have a great time".
"Tokyo is so big, if I get lost one day, I'm afraid I won't be able to see each other again." The film is slow and heavy. There are plenty of long takes in the film, and the camera moves are slow, creating a sense of serenity and serenity. In a sense, such a shot is the perspective of two old people, dragging their tiny bodies and staggering their paces, looking at unfamiliar things in unfamiliar cities, and looking at younger generations who were once familiar but increasingly estranged. When Kiko led them around Tokyo, most of the films used overhead shots, and the tall buildings, dazzling shops and office buildings were dazzling; the palaces and squares used overhead shots to show their grandeur. Onomichi, a small town where the old man has lived for nearly a lifetime, is incomparable with the bustling metropolis of Tokyo. The insignificance and helplessness of human beings under modernization is vividly reflected.
What Yasujiro Ozu wants to convey in this film is "conflict", but not intense. The most obvious one is the conflict between parents and children. The conflict between what parents should do when they grow old and what choices should their children make is thought-provoking. The second is the conflict between Japan's traditional agricultural society and modernized and industrialized society, exemplified by the contrast between Onomichi and Tokyo. In fact, the two conflicts are not isolated. In short, the conflict in the film is the conflict between tradition and modernity.
The film was shot in the 1950s. After World War II, Japan quickly recovered from the shadow of defeat and embarked on a road of high-speed industrialization. Tokyo is a typical representative. Tokyo's high-rise buildings and busy traffic symbolize the disintegration of traditional Japanese society. Traditional Japanese society is slow, refined, and life is comfortable. Onomichi, a port town, still retains its relatively primitive appearance: low-rise houses, curling smoke, and sparse elementary school students are so beautiful that people are nostalgic. Only the occasional train passing by breaks this tranquility. The reality of the 1950s was high-speed, prosperous, and noisy. The film uses extremely gentle means to show it, with a contrasting beauty.
At the same time as the traditional agricultural society was disintegrating, the traditional morality of Japan was also disintegrated. Chapter 5 of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword describes the importance of parental grace in traditional Japanese society:
People also received favors from people who were lower in rank than the emperor. Of course, he also accepted the grace of his parents. This is the basis of the famous Eastern filial piety that empowers parents to control their children. It is also said that children owe their parents kindness and must work hard to repay. Therefore, children must do their best to obey their parents, and not like Germany (which is also a country where parents have power over their children), parents must do their best to force their children to obey. The Japanese interpretation of this - oriental filial piety - is very realistic. They have such a proverb about the kindness of their parents, which translates to the effect: "You can only know the kindness of your parents when you raise children." That is to say, the kindness of the parents is real, and the parents take care and worry about their children every day.
Therefore, in the traditional moral concept, children's care for their parents should be wholeheartedly and wholeheartedly, because parents are kind to them. In the film, Zhou Ji and his wife worked hard to raise five children. Now most of the children have married and established their own businesses and lived a relatively superior life. It stands to reason that children have endless gratitude to their parents and will try to repay their gratitude in various ways, but this is not the case. This kind of ingratitude is most evidently shown in the film by daughter-in-law Noriko, but it is no longer evident in Koichi and Fan.
The book "Chrysanthemum and the Sword" also mentioned, "Although the particularity of culture makes it easy for the Japanese to accept the idea of repaying kindness, in Japan, it is still unusual to be willing to accept kindness. They do not like to accept debts casually." Zhou Ji The couple feels very guilty about what their children have done to them, and they have to go back to their hometown after just a few days. From this point of view, it is very easy to understand. It's just that the emotional contrast between parents and children is too great. Children are always demanding, and their gratitude is weak. Parents are always giving and unwilling to receive, which leads to the sadness in the film.
But Yasujiro Ozu did not strongly criticize this kind of behavior. He analyzed the behavior of his children from a rational point of view. At the end of the film, Jingzi said angrily: "They are too selfish." Noriko said: "When children grow up, they will gradually move away from their parents. Sister Fan is different from her parents at this age. She has her own life. It's not because she has bad intentions. Everyone cares about their own lives." "Everyone will gradually become like this... Although I don't want to, it will still become like that." Noriko can be said to be "Tokyo Story" The "perfect goddess" in , but even she can't control her own changes and become selfish. The conflict described earlier in the film, the implicit criticism, has another interpretation here. This is an unavoidable problem in everyone's growth. Everyone focuses on their own life, and perhaps because everyone pays attention to themselves, it promotes the progress of society to a certain extent. In this way, the dissatisfaction and even the anger that had accumulated before had all turned into indifference.
After careful reflection, you will find that Zhou Ji and his wife in the film have never complained about anything from the beginning to the end, which implies the director's inclination. In the face of the busyness and accusations of their children, despite their disappointment, they have always remained indifferent. It's worth pondering all the content of the couple's separate conversations in the film, they maintain understanding of their children, and pride.
I saw all my children in ten days, and my grandson has grown up. But children will change when they grow up, and it is difficult to do what parents want. People are always dissatisfied, in fact, they have already calculated, we are very happy. ——These are the heartfelt feelings of the old couple. They have lived for decades, and they have already seen the world, and they have long been able to deal with it indifferently. And Yasujiro Ozu, like these two old men, sat and watched the wind blow, waited for the clouds to cool down, and laughed about the passage of time.
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