Tokyo Story Literary Elements

Tokyo Story Literary Elements

Director

Yasujirô Ozu

Leading Actors/Actresses

Chishû Ryû, Chieko Higashiyama

Supporting Actors/Actresses

Setsuko Hara, Haruko Sugimura, Sô Yamamura, Kuniko Miyake, Kyôko Kagawa

Genre

Realistic drama

Language

Japanese

Awards

n/a

Date of Release

1953

Producer

Takeshi Yamamoto

Setting and Context

Post World War II Tokyo and Onomichi

Narrator and Point of View

Point of view is that of Sukichi and Tomi Hirayama

Tone and Mood

Pleasant and polite with an undercurrent of emotion

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonists are Sukichi and Tomi Hirayama, and Noriko. Antagonists are their children Koichi, Shige and Keizo.

Major Conflict

Sukichi and Tomi come to visit their children in Tokyo, but all of them are too busy to spend time with them.

Climax

Tomi suffers an illness on her way home from Tokyo and goes into a coma. She later dies.

Foreshadowing

Tomi tells her children not to come visit even if she or Sukichi take ill.

Understatement

The character's backgrounds are understated.

Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques

n/a

Allusions

n/a

Paradox

The paradox is that Noriko takes better care of her dead husband's parents than their actual children do.

Parallelism

The black train cutting through Onomichi in the beginning of the film parallels it leaving at the end. It represents the connection to the big city and ultimately the lack of connection.

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