What is so special about a film focused the banal?
Japanese cinema was predominantly unknown outside of Asia until the release of Rashomon (1953), a film that received international acclaim during its time and to this day influences film across the world. This film helped lift Japan from its "post war" period. What had emerged from the period of cinema to follow, including Tokyo Story, is recognised as landmarks in cinema's history. Tokyo Story had made such a prominent mark upon cinema as a film making use of the long shot, a film consisting of shots in which the camera barely moves, and fewer shots than the conventional Hollywood film.
In Tokyo Story, the camera, in many of the film's scenes, remains still and just below eye level. As a result, scenes consist of one shot in which characters leave and enter, and within these shots, we see very little physical movement. Characters sit and converse in scenes, rarely do they move, and when they do, they move by train, a symbol used repeatedly in cinema – in this instance, the train is used as a nod to the motif in Japanese art of the traveller, who is typically seen in the undertaking of their journey as separating from they group to which they belong. Long shots in cinema are considered to be the convention in cinema that closely represents reality. In reality, we are not exposed to what we see and feel through a series of images composed by seamless editing; instead, we see life from our seats, as we see it in Tokyo Story. Also in Hollywood cinema, the transition between scenes is always without the mundane – there is no need to wait for the next anticipated action, it is delivered to the viewer immediately. This does not occur in reality or in Tokyo Story.
Not only is the film banal in its aesthetic, but in terms of narrative, patience in its audience is highly recommended. Much of the film's dialogue is polite exchanges shared between characters. Audiences are not explicitly exposed to the feelings of the characters on screen, which in a typical mainstream film they would become very familiar, we remain – politely – distant. The story of distance between parents and children told in this film (reportedly a common theme in Ozu's oeuvre) is felt between audiences and the film.
Telling stories of the banal in film is a revolutionary step: film has its origins in the spectacular, the novelty of seeing something on screen was once a very, very special affair. Early films that were recognised as spectacles ranged from images as simple as the shots of people moving in and out of a warehouse, a recording of an exploding wall played in reverse to the electrocution of an elephant. Each of these attracted audiences simply because they were part of the spectacle of film. To transform film to a medium in which reality can be accurately depicted is to transform the medium into a recognisable form of art.
The following sources were used for research:
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