I have conflicting feelings about Tokyo Story. This is definitely one of those movies that falls into the category of “I think this is a really good and well-made movie, but it’s not really one that I find engaging enough to want to randomly sit down and watch anytime.” Between being voted the greatest film of all-time on a Sight & Sound poll, having a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and being in IMDB’s user-rated top 250 movies of all time, Tokyo Story is widely considered to be one of the best films ever made. And I can agree with that, to an extent. It’s just that it’s a bit of an exhausting movie, and so while I’m happy that I saw it, I’m not really yearning to see it again anytime soon.

Let’s back up though. What is Tokyo Story all about? The movie is all about an old couple that go on a trip to visit their children, who are all grown-up now. However, when they’re on the trip, their kids really don’t pay much attention to them, doing things like sending them off to see some sights by themselves. It’s telling that the person that spends the most time with them is the wife of their deceased son, rather than their own flesh and blood. It’s a story about humanity and how we tend to stop valuing people once they get old and we have our own lives. I thought that it was a really interesting story, and one that made me feel introspective about how I treat the elderly in my life.

I think that the hardest thing about watching Tokyo Story is that it’s very slow-paced, which is admittedly intentional. It’s just that the movie is pretty close to 2 and a half hours, and you really feel that length. Slow-paced movies are sometimes hard to recommend because they’re just not very high in entertainment value. The result is that I end up appreciating Tokyo Story more than I actually enjoy it. It has enough interesting moments to prevent it from being boring, but it still tends to feel slower than I would have liked.

I will say that for anyone that’s into filmmaking or technical aspects of movies, Tokyo Story has a very interesting style. I try to do research on movie classics like this before I review them, and I learned a lot about how Tokyo Story was shot when I was looking into it. The movie has a lot of low shots to resemble sitting on a Japanese tatami mat, and a lot of the shots are just stationary. There are also all sorts of interesting stylistic choices, like breaking the “180-degree rule” of filmmaking. For anyone that’s into this sort of thing, it’s worth checking the movie out and reading all about it.

While I have conflicting feelings about the movie, I’m ultimately really glad that I watched it. I appreciate it most for tackling a subject that’s rarely portrayed in movies, especially in such a raw and candid way. Its slow pacing (not to mention it being a black-and-white foreign film) might be a barrier for some viewers, but for anyone that can get past that it’s pretty interesting. I found it very similar to another contemporary of its time, Ikiru, although I actually did like Tokyo Story a bit more myself. I don’t have a desire to watch it again anytime soon, but I’m still happy that I got to see what it was all about. I recommend it to film buffs out there, but most casual audiences are probably going to want something different.

4/5