Tôkyô Boshoku (1957) Tokyo Twilight [Eclipse Re-Issue]

Directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
Once again Ozu welcomes viewers "home" with familiar low angle establishing shots of distant apartments framed by power lines as a ubiquitous train passes, but Tokyo Twilight (Tokyo boshoku) soon hints at its darker side. On a frigid winter night Mr. Sugiyama (Chishu Ryu) strides down an empty alleyway into a noodle shop for dinner—something he would have rarely done in traditional family life. His wife walked out years ago, leaving him to raise two daughters: older daughter Takako (Setsuko Hara) is unhappily married while younger daughter Akiko (Ineko Arima) spends most of her time looking for her boyfriend Keiji.


When Sugiyama returns home, he is surprised to see Takako waiting for him. Family dysfunction is plainly evident, as she avoids explaining why she has no immediate plans to return to her husband or infant daughter. Hints of alcoholism are brought out, and Sugiyama expresses regret for arranging the marriage instead of making arrangements to match his dutiful daughter with another man that she fancied.


The broken family unit has even more profound effects on Akiko. She has adopted more western manners and customs, indicated by her clothing, musical tastes, and general attitude. Non-communicative and sullen at home, she becomes a frequent visitor to Tokyo's "twilight" decadence of late night bars, gambling halls, and mahjong parlors. At one of these establishments, she meets a woman who claims to have been a neighbor of theirs many years ago, but her extreme familiarity leads Akiko to rightly suspect that the woman is her mother.


Elements of melodrama dominate this Ozu film. Takako explains her younger sister's rebellious, depressive state on the fact that she never had a mother to raise her—of course reflecting on her own experience, and eventually affecting her own family situation. Abandonment issues continue to haunt Akiko as she desperately seeks her irresponsible boyfriend. When she finally tracks him down to discuss her personal crisis, all he can do is wallow in self-pity and indifference. Thus, the plot denouement in this darkest of Ozu dramas plays out predictably.


Appropriately the last black and white Ozu film, Tokyo Twilight maintains his signature style despite its tragic melancholy. Once again Ozu examines the post-war Japanese family in transition, with some family members retaining more tradition than others. Beautifully photographed and framed, the story flows naturally and gently and retains hope. This family unit is undergoing extreme pain, yet we know that life will go on—that after every bitter winter comes a spring, summer, and fall. It doesn't rank among his strongest works, but even an "ordinary" Ozu film remains far more watchable that the glut of commercial releases, and we can be thankful to The Criterion Collection for making it part of their Late Ozo box set.


Made in 1957, Tokyo Twilight is the last Ozu film to be filmed in black and white. Returning to his favoured territory, the postwar Japanese family, Ozu paints a bleak and atmospheric tableau of a family that is slowly falling apart.
His wife gone and presumed dead, a Japanese businessman is left to bring up his two daughters. Seemingly detached from reality, but judgemental nonetheless, the patriarch spends his spare time drinking and gambling while his two daughters slowly unravels. His eldest daughter Takako has recently returned home following the break-up of her unhappy marriage and his younger daughter Akiko wanders from late night bar to gambling den to pick-up joint, searching for her boyfriend in order to tell him that she is secretly pregnant. Family bonds strain as Takako tries to keep the family together through lies and threats and Akiko wants nothing more to be free of her family and her life. Finally, the bonds shatter as the girls' mother makes her unexpected reappearance.


A complex and subtle film, Tokyo Twilight is a film that examines the relationships between different family members and how they are affected by change. Unsurprisingly, this means that each character has hidden depths and subtleties that only really become obvious upon a second viewing. For example, the family's patriarch initially seems to be just that; passing judgement as he sits in his kimono having his daughters bring him food and drink. However, upon further examination, this businessman is not above heavy drinking over lunch during the week and his daughters keep him almost entirely out of the loop. Indeed, when he does get an inkling of what his daughters are up to and tries to confront one, his rant is less that of a disciplinarian and more that of a man with no authority who nonetheless feels the need to go through the motions.


Such complexity would not work if it were not for the superb performances turned in by the three main actors. Chishu Ryu's patriarch is a wonderfully nuanced performance as is that of Ineko Arima's teenager in turmoil. The best performance though is undeniably that of Ozu's muse Setsuko Hara. Possibly underwritten, Takako is an enigmatic woman who while undeniably a victim of her father's poor decisions seemingly acts as his enforcer, trying to keep the family not only together but also in the shape he is used to. Nowhere is this more evident than in the slightly disarming hostility of Takako's interactions with her mother.


Beautifully shot, the film is deeply atmospheric. Using Ozu's traditional waist-high camerawork, the film is set in a world of perpetual winter full of dingy clubs and gambling parlours where joyful music wafts through the air as if to suggest that it is echoing from another world quite different from the dingy and depressing place the characters inhabit.

If this film is not lacking in ambition. The emotional depth of the story and the complexity of the characters and relationships are demanding for a film that doesn't even last two hours. Indeed, Ozu's ending to the film seems to rob the film of its final denouement as it ties up all outstanding plotlines. We never get to see the real fallout from the film's climax. But then, when dealing with family, does one ever really get closure?

Thanks as always to CerealRipper for the source DVD. Check my other posts for quality DivX rips of Ozu and Kurosawa films, including DVD extras.