Popular reviews

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  Review by Peaceful Stoner ★★★★★ 53

  Tokyo Story is poignancy refined and redefined. The entire film is poetic, heart rending and is immensely soulful. From the strikingly beautiful Japanese country side wearing a sultry look, the most humbly built homes on earth, with a score as sweet and soothing as a cuckoo’s early morning song, with people who bow and show respect in the most courteous manner; this film was incredibly touching and an invaluable life experience for me.

  Ozu brilliantly mesmerizes the viewer with the static and hyper observant camera, immersing us into the twilight days and wishes of an aging couple, The Hirayamas. The one wish they have is to visit their children, be with them under their roof, experience their love and care…

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  Review by Cormac 👑 ★★★★★ 6

  Ouch. This broke me.

  I generally try to stay away from being overly personal with my writing on here for fear of oversharing but it feels only appropriate here.

  My grandparents on my mothers side are creeping into their nineties. Obviously, this is an achievement in and of itself and we're very fortunate that they've lived such long, fruitful lives, including my formative years.

  Naturally, with age they are becoming less and less able. It's painful and uncomfortable to watch someone you've grown up loving and idolising deteriorating into something they're not. This, coupled with a particularly busy schedule has lead me to spending less and less time with them than ever.

  However, I really shouldn't be justifying it. I'm…

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  Review by Dirk Diggler ★★★★★ 3

  Cinema at its most pure and beautiful. So human. Thank you, mr. Ozu.

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  Review by Will Sloan ★★★★★

  "If you come up to Tokyo again, mother, please come visit again."
  "Yes... But I'm afraid I won't be coming back. I know you're busy, but do try to come to Onomichi."
  "I'd really like to, if it were a bit nearer."
  "You're right, it's so far away."

  What nobody told me as an immature teenager was that the secret to appreciating Ozu is to live long enough to feel the years start going by faster and faster, and see everyone you know grow decades older, and watch everything you've ever known and loved steamrolled by change.

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  Review by sarah ★★★★½ 1

  "What are you going to be when you grow up?.... I wonder if I'll still be here." ❤️

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  Review by Jim Cummings ★★★★★

  Be nice to people. Don't be a dickhead.
  Families are complicated, kindness is not.
  Nobody cares about your salon, Shige Kaneko.
  Noriko forever.

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  Review by BrandonHabes ★★★★★ 36

  TOKYO STORY revealed secrets in me I'm almost too embarrassed to talk about on this platform, but feel they're important to process. To cite an example, my parents came to visit us over Christmas holiday last year. I'm married to a beautiful woman, we've created a beautiful child, and my parents were excited to see us after about a year of living in different states. I was just starting my Mike Leigh marathon, and when I do these runs I often become very wrapped up in the process, I'd say to a fault (I'll unpack this in a moment).

  My mom loves talking with me in the evenings after things settle down, and we usually can talk endlessly for hours…

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  Review by Darren Carver-Balsiger ★★★★★ 31

  The first time I watched Tokyo Story its emotional core didn't really get to me, but this time around the final act seemed so devastatingly perfect. Yasujirō Ozu's sequence of static compositions manages to find a calmness in the world. He eschews melodrama and is still able to evoke a deeply emotional response in the viewer. Tokyo Story is a fairly standard film for Ozu, using some of his favourite actors (notably Chishū Ryū and Setsuko Hara) and breaking the same rules of cinema that he always does (not showing key events, ignoring the 180 degrees rule, using long pillow shots), but it's executed so beautifully here. Ozu brings up his usual themes - family, change, the struggle between the traditional…

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★★

  Hell of a movie to watch on the night your oldest loses her first baby tooth.

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  Review by Kurdt ★★ 5

  Getting my Official Cinephile Membership™ revoked as I type this. I am now an avid stamp collector instead.

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  Review by Logan Kenny ★★★★★ 1

  hits too hard right now.

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  Review by Tanubrick ★★★★★

  Isn't life disappointing?

  Tokyo Story is a tough film to talk about.
  Its realism reflects a taboo and normalized issue in society that I've noticed a lot of times in other people, but it's one of the hardest to change.

  Selfishness is a problem that starts from the beginning of life, and I can accept it to a certain level, but doing it to your parents is inscrutable.
  That's why art is one of the most important things in human history; it can be used to express this through a different language causing the viewer to reflect on it and notice its consequences before it's too late to correct it. 

  Every technical aspect is flawless, and the dialogues are magnificent,…