Tokyo Twilight

One of Ozu’s darkest films (and his last in black-and-white), the intense Tokyo Twilight is set in a nocturnal, wintry Tokyo of tawdry bars and seedy mah-jong parlours. The atypically melodramatic plot has Ozu mainstay Chishu Ryu as an aging father, apparently widowed, living with his two adult daughters. The eldest daughter, played by Setsuko Hara, has recently fled an unhappy and abusive marriage. The youngest, played by Ineko Arima, has been impregnated and abandoned by a boyfriend, and is seeking an abortion. The discovery of a shocking family secret — the truth about their mother’s absence — leaves both sisters devastated. “The dialogue and acting are superb ... This is the nearest that Ozu ventured towards Western ideas of melodrama, although he is still more restrained than the plot suggests” (Bloomsbury Foreign Film Guide). “Such excesses [of plot] were rare for him. Still, Ozu’s melodrama appears austere indeed by comparison with anyone else’s” (Donald Richie). B&W, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles. 141 mins.