Tokyo Story

This BFI Film Classics study of Tokyo Monogatari/Tokyo Story (1953) reveals the making, meaning and legacy behind Ozu Yasujiro’s masterpiece.

Ozu’s moving family drama is universally acknowledged as one of the most significant Japanese films ever made. In its complex portrait of human motivation and lively sense of social space, it offers a profound and poignant insight into the generational shifts of post-war Japan.

Alastair Phillips provides an in-depth analysis of the film and its key locations - the city of Tokyo, the town of Onomichi and the coastal resort of Atami - with a discussion of its representation of Japanese society at a time of great cultural change. Drawing upon Japanese and English language sources, he situates the film within various contemporary critical and industrial contexts and examines the multiple international dimensions of Tokyo Story’s long after-life to understand its enormous contribution to global film culture.

Alastair Phillips is Professor of Film Studies and Head of the Department of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. As well as serving as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the BFI Film Classics series, he is an editor of the film studies journal Screen and a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema. He is co-editor of The Japanese Cinema Book (BFI, 2020);Beyond the Flaneur: Paris in the Cinema (co-edited with Ginette Vincendeau) (BFI 2017), and A Companion to Jean Renoir (co-edited with Ginette Vincendeau) (2013); author of Rififi (2009), co-author of 100 Film Noirs (with Jim Hillier) (BFI, 2009) and co-editor of Japanese Cinema: Texts and Contexts (2007).