内容紹介
日本映画を代表する傑作の1本。巨匠・小津安二郎監督が、戦後変わりつつある家族の関係をテーマに人間の生と死までをも見つめた深淵なドラマ。故郷の尾道から20年ぶりに東京へ出てきた老夫婦。成人した子どもたちの家を訪ねるが、みなそれぞれの生活に精一杯だった。唯一、戦死した次男の未亡人だけが皮肉にも優しい心遣いを示すのだった…。いまでは失われつつある思いやりや慎ましさといった“日本のこころ”とでもいうべきものを原節子が体現している。家でひとり侘しくたたずむ笠智衆を捉えたショットは映画史上に残る名ラスト・シーンのひとつ。
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Yasujiro Ozu's economical style reaches its zenith in this deceptively simple 1953 story of an elderly couple in rural Japan who go to visit their married children in Tokyo. Chishu Ryo (Ozu's favorite performer) and Chieko Higashiyama star as the aging parents who find a cold welcome waiting for them from their two urbanized children, too busy with work and their own lives to pay them any attention. After a miserable trip to a noisy spa, the mother spends a pleasant night with the widow of their other son (who had died in the war) while the father drinks the evening away with old friends. But on their return trip, the mother falls ill and the family reunites one last time at her sickbed. Within this simple framework, Ozu creates a quiet but profound drama of the changing face of Japanese culture and the loss of traditional values in modern society. Described by critics as Japan's most "Japanese" director, Ozu's style by this time had become firmly established: the entire film is shot from an unmoving camera 36 inches from the floor (the point of view of an observer kneeling on a tatami mat), edited in a subtly off-center manner and paced at a placid tempo. Ozu's graceful style, understated direction, and rich evocation of character creates an elegantly realized world of dignity in the face of disappointment and loss.
--Sean Axmaker