Crepúsculo de Tokio

A two grown up sisters living with their single father, find out they have a mother who abounded them years ago. Feelings of hostile and anger, goes around them both. Another masterful filmmaking by Ozu, through family and loneliness, abandonment and anger, fulfill this piece. Setsuko Hara and Chishû Ryû, stunning as usual. A little different Ozu film in many ways, here we have a lot of darkness and hardness around family and family members. A masterpiece.

Two sisters, Takako (Setsuko Hara), who is estranged from her husband, and Akiko (Ineko Arima), who is starting to 'run wild', live with their father Shukichi (Chishu Ryu), whose wife deserted him for another man when the girls were young children. The film is a typical Yasujiro Ozu family drama - melancholy, compelling and beautifully filmed. Similar to many of the auteur's other films, the story focuses on the breakdown of a Japanese family but rather than being due to transgenerational changes in attitudes and culture, the breakdown in 'Tokyo Twilight' is ignited by poor judgement and bad personal decisions. I found the resolution of Akiko's story a bit had to reconcile with the images on screen (but this may be due to Ozu's tendency to jump forward and leave it to the viewers to imagine the unseen events). Recommended (even if I remain unsure as to why I enjoy Ozu's films so much).

Yasujiro Ozu in my mind has got to one of the greatest directors in Japanese cinema, second only to Akira Kurosawa (also hold Hayou Miyazaki in high regard). As well as film in general, a feeling immediately felt after being blown away by 'An Autumn Afternoon' and especially 'Tokyo Story' years ago and this deep appreciation developed more when watching more of his work relatively recently. Again his work takes patience getting into it but if stuck with it's well worth it and more.

'Tokyo Twilight' is somewhat atypical Ozu. One can tell without any problem or hesitation that it's Ozu's style, which was a distinctive one and obvious in all his films regardless of the subject. The story though is a more intense one compared to what is usually seen with him and the approach is darker and bleaker than the usual gentle touch. That doesn't in any way stop it from being a wonderful film in every way, and is actually an interest point and what makes it stand out among his filmography.

It looks great, purposefully static yet never cheap, for starters, being notable for being the last Ozu made in black and white. With 1958's 'Equinox Flower' and all the films between that and 1962's 'An Autumn Afternoon', so the director's last six films, being made in colour. It is beautifully shot with distinctive techniques that Ozu used frequently, adds so much to the film's bleakness and an intimacy that allowed one to further engage with the drama. Ozu's direction has a little more tension than usual but also has the sensitivity, present in all his other major films, that few other directors before and since matched.

Kojun Saito, an Ozu regular, provides a haunting yet typically understated and sometimes nostalgic score, used intimately. The script is thoughtful and doesn't lay either the intense bleakness or poignancy on too thick. The story is deliberate but never dull, it is one of Ozu's darkest and bleakest films, with a never overplayed intensity between characters, while also very human and affecting.

Characterisation is not one-dimensional and very human, their strengths and flaws relatable and not taken to extremes in either way. Their situations also come over realistically and powerfully. The acting is great with a particularly riveting performance from Ineko Arima.

Overall, wonderful and one of Ozu's best. It is a shame though that it is not as better known as it deserves to be. 10/10

Yasujiro Ozu's 1957 family drama is probably his darkest & bleakest yet w/the story of a family coming apart at the seams. A father, played by Chishu Ryu (who usually would play the paterfamilias in Ozu's films), lives w/his 2 daughters, Setsuko Hara & Ineko Arima & they're not the happiest sort. Arima is studying English to become a shorthand steno while Hara, who has left her husband, has brought her daughter along to stay in the home while Ryu whiles away his days away as a banker. Arima spends her time chasing after a college student but after they hook up & she gets pregnant, he disappears. Not knowing if she'll go through w/an abortion, she spends time hanging out at a mahjong parlor where the proprietress seems to know her since she mentions she knows Hara & details of the village from they came from. It turns out the woman is in fact the girls' mother (she left Ryu during the war for another man, the same one she runs the business with) which is confirmed by a friend of the family on a visit to Ryu's home. After the abortion, Arima soon gets the news about her mother & seeing her life appears to be heading towards a dead end (after her beau pops up out of the blue), she tries to commit suicide by stepping in front of a passing train where she's rushed to a hospital w/injuries. As the plot cards are fully lain on the cinematic table, the family has to come to grips w/where their lives are now & whether to lick their collective wounds & continue living. It's nice seeing Ozu plowing territory that someone like Ingmar Bergman would make his career on but yet again, even though this is a film replete w/disappointments, they are quiet, subdued & sometime not even mentioned. Look for Kamatari Fujiwara (from Seven Samurai where he played the duplicitous Manzo) as a noodle salesman.

Generally considered to be Ozu's bleakest film which is, perhaps, why it's often placed behind "Tokyo Story" and "Late Spring", funnier and gentler if not less powerful works , in this director's canon. I would agree with this assessment and ranking although it's a bit like saying "The Possessed" is Doestoevsky's third best novel. I mean it's still a shattering experience that stays with you long after you've finished it and demands to be re-visited. I would especially like again to view the character of the loving but strangely passive mom who walks out on her marriage and kids but wants and expects immediate forgiveness from her children. Ozu and his co scenarist Kogo Noda's treatment of her is amazingly good, bringing out both the monstrousness and humanity of this person so that you are both appalled by and sympathetic toward her. And the downward spiral of Akiko, which in the hands of a lesser director would descend the tear jerking path, is looked at with compassion tempered with a rather cold eyed realism in the scenes at the police station and the abortion clinic. And Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara, re-enacting the father/daughter relationship of "Late Spring" but with the interesting difference that Hara's character is married but separated, meet on a more equal plane of maturity, in my opinion, than in the earlier work that makes their scenes together fuller and less sentimental. So while your tear ducts are drier your mind is more engaged. And, come to think of it, maybe that's another reason why this film has been unjustly neglected, at least in the West. Give it an A.