is a 1957 Japanese drama film by

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...

. It is the story of two sisters (played by

Ineko Arima Ineko Arima (有馬稲子, Arima Ineko) is a Japanese film actress born on 3 April 1932 in Osaka. She is known for her work with director Yasujirō Ozu. Selected filmography Film Television Honours *Medal with Purple Ribbon are medals a ...

and Ozu regular

Setsuko Hara Setsuko (written: or in hiragana) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, later of Japan *, actress *, Japanese volleyball player *, Japanese actress and model *Setsuko Klossowska de Rola (born 1942), Japane ...

) who are reunited with a mother who left them as children. The film is considered amongst Ozu's darkest postwar films; it is well received though lesser known. It is his last film shot in black and white.

Synopsis

Akiko Sugiyama (

) is a college student learning English

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''ste ...

. Her elder sister Takako (

), running away from an unhappy marriage, has returned home to stay with Akiko and their father Shukichi (

Chishū Ryū was a Japanese actor who, in a career lasting 65 years, appeared in over 160 films and about 70 television productions. Early life Ryū was born in Tamamizu Village, Tamana County, a rural area of Kumamoto Prefecture in Kyushu, the most southe ...

) in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, together with her toddler girl. Shukichi works in a bank in Tokyo. Akiko has a relationship with her college boyfriend Kenji (Masami Taura), which results in an unwanted pregnancy. Later, Akiko has an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

, after an encounter in which she realizes that her boyfriend does not love her. While going to a

mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...

parlour to look for Kenji, Akiko comes across its proprietress Kisako (

Isuzu Yamada was a Japanese stage and screen actress whose career spanned seven decades. Biography Yamada was born in Osaka as Mitsu Yamada, the daughter of Kusudu Yamada, a shinpa actor specialising in onnagata roles, and Ritsu, a geisha. Under her mother ...

), who seems to know a lot about her family. Back at home, Takako hears about Kisako from Akiko, and pieces together the fact that she is their long-lost mother. Takako visits the parlour to ask Kisako not to reveal to Akiko who she really is – but the plan backfires. Akiko learns of her visit and goes to confront Takako. Takako then discloses to her that Kisako is their mother, who ran away with another man when Akiko was still a toddler. Shaken, Akiko goes to confront Kisako to ask if she is the daughter of her father. She leaves in a huff, upset by Kisako abandoning her as a child, then goes to a Chinese noodle shop for some

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

. Her boyfriend Kenji enters, and the two have an argument. Akiko leaves angrily, and she is hit by a train at an intersection just outside the shop. Akiko is badly injured, and she expresses the wish to live and start life over again in the presence of her father and sister. In the next scene, however, in one of Ozu's famous ellipses, a bitter Takako goes to visit her mother to tell her the news of Akiko's death. Kisako is distraught, and agrees with her husband that she will leave Tokyo for his new job in Hokkaido. Just prior to their departure, she goes to the Sugiyamas to offer her condolences, and to tell Takako of her decision. Takako does not go to send her off at the railway station. In the last scene of the film, Takako reveals to her father that she is going back to her husband to try to make their marriage work again. She does not want her daughter to have the same experience as Akiko, who grew up without knowing one of her parents. Shukichi agrees with her decision.

Cast

Reception

Several reviewers consider ''Tokyo Twilight'' to be one of the director's bleakest works. While rarely screened, it has a 100% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

with an average rating of 7.8/10. In ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'',

Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He first ...

argued, "This turbulent and grim family melodrama, from 1957, is steered away from the maudlin and given emotional depth and philosophical heft under the direction of Yasujiro Ozu." Fred Camper of the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative weekly newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. It was founded by a ...

'' declared it one of the director's best works and wrote, "The father and elder daughter try to meet the world with a gaze as steady as that of Ozu's static camera, ultimately resigning themselves to accepting tragedy, which is presented as inevitable in the flow of life." In 2009 the film was ranked at No. 106 on the list of the ''Greatest Japanese Films of All Time'' by Japanese film magazine

kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

References

External links

* * {{Yasujirō Ozu 1957 films 1957 drama films Japanese drama films Films directed by Yasujirō Ozu Films with screenplays by Yasujirō Ozu Films with screenplays by Kogo Noda Films set in Tokyo Japanese black-and-white films Shochiku films 1950s Japanese films