Ozu Vs. Hollywood Realism

Yasujiro Ozu directed this 1953 film called Tokyo Story which has been argued to be in the top 10 greatest films ever made . This film has a universal plot making realism its best quality. However the realism in this film is not the norm of the realism most of us see in Hollywood films. The film is about an older couple, Tomi and Shukichi who go on a trip to visit their children in Tokyo. When they arrive at each of the children's homes, none seem to acknowledge their company. The children spend little time with them leaving the couple disappointed in their children. It is only their daughter-in-law who makes time for them, leaving work early to show them around the city and spend time with them. The couple begin to feel that their visit is no longer welcome and decide to get back to their home. However on the ride back, Tomi, the wife, becomes deathly ill. Her children are called to be informed of her sickness. The children come to her side at her house for her death and when Tomi dies only the husband and the daughter-in-law show their sadness while everyone else is distant to the situation and even asking for her possessions as tokens of remembrance. 

 

This film has a very simple plot and the way it is filmed makes the film seem almost plotless because it is deemphasized. How Ozu portrays realism in the film is very different from classical Hollywood action-packed films with car chases and high intense drama. The hollywood norm of these fast paced films keeps the story going moving from one moment to the next by using a cause-effect chain reaction where one event leads to a cause and then an effect which becomes the next cause. This norm is Hollywood's narrative and how the viewer makes meaning through the film. In this way the viewer looks at the result of the chain, Ozu challenges his viewers by creating ellipsis in the film to make us look at the process of how someone got to a position. This can be shown throughout the movie where he completely drops scenes that classic hollywood films would put stress on to make the movie feel more emotional and plot driven: at the beginning we hear of the couples trip to their first child’s house but we never see it; in the middle we see the children talking about sending the parents on a trip but Ozu leaves out showing them getting ready and going to their destination but rather shows the older couple already at their vacation spot; at the end and the most noticeable part would be the mother’s death and how instead of showing her dying, Ozu focuses on the reactions of her children which makes the scene not as dramatic.

 

Editing and the use of camera movements are a huge role of building emotion and meaning in Hollywood films. Ozu's camera movements are few including no zooms, pans, or anything in between. He uses a steady camera at a low angle to the ground, as if he was sitting on a traditional Japanese tatami floor seats. He stays at this angle throughout the film unlike the norm of American films always moving around following characters and using zooms and fast editing cuts often. A lot of his shots are empty shots showing background and space more then the actual actors. And he breaks the traditional 180 degree rule by shooting the film in a 360 degree space using a variety of shots from every angle. This makes the film a little complicated to follow along with the ellipses, a viewer has to actively participate while watching the film although it may seem slow because of the lack of plot and movement within the film. The style of how it is made is complex because of shooting in 360 degrees. This makes me wonder how confused the editor must have been trying to pick out scenes and which shots should go where because they can't all line up in a norm of continuity because of the 360 degrees. The transitions from one shot to another are not as smooth as Hollywood films because we see the cuts whereas in Hollywood they try to hide them through editing a certain way and matching the screen direction. With Ozu there is no flat line therefore screen direction does not matter to him because he uses full circle.