Delayed Reaction: Tokyo Story

The Pitch: Not all Japanese movies need to be exciting like Godzilla.

An older couple come to visit their adult children in the city only to realize they've become a burden on them.

I have trouble with the two sides of my movie fandom. I love the entertainment factor of movies. I think there's nothing wrong with calling something a great popcorn movie. Comedy and action are as hard to pull off as anything but get a fraction of the respect of drama. I do also love "serious" movies. I've fawned over many critical darling. Even movies like Schindler's List or Citizen Kane, which I was initially determined to find overrated, I've since come to love. Occasionally, I worry that I've swung too far to the pretentious movie snob side of things. Then I run into a movie like Tokyo Story and realize that I'm not there yet.

I don't get the love for this movie. And there is a lot of love for this movie. Just check out the Critical Review section on its Wikipedia page. People adore this movie. And, by people, I mean film snobs (I say lovingly). I assume the average person isn't even aware of Tokyo Story, but the average person who regularly posts reviews on Letterboxd reveres it as a classic. I suppose I see some of the things people revere about it. The slow, deliberate pace helps to amplify the effect of it by the end. I liked the performances well enough. If you wanted to call this influential, well, I don't know about about international cinema from the 50s to disagree with you.

I just plain thought this was dull. No performance really popped. The movie refrains from melodrama so much that it becomes mundane. I know that much of this is the whole point of the movie, but "knowing what you're doing" isn't the same as "doing something that's good."

I should clarify that I didn't hate Tokyo Story. I try to keep my list of classics that I hate short. It's mainly just Network and The Tree of Life these days (and even those I'm leaving some room to change my mind about). My stance on Tokyo Story is that I don't get what is special about it. I'm not sure why Tokyo Story over so many other movies is regarded as special. If I watched it and several other movies from that era back to back in one afternoon, I doubt I'd be able to pick this out as the classic. Perhaps this will go on my "check back in 10 years" list.  

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend