To Our Beloved Parents

Tokyo Story, a universal and evergreen story of love in a family. I have to thank Kyoko personally, and Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur for the invitation - the opening night of the Japanese Film Festival 2005 recently. I walked in to the theatre with great anticipation of the film (especially being intricately introduced by Yasmin, I was immediately fired up to watch) simply because it is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made in film history.

The film started, very slowly. At times, I felt the dialogues were pretty stagy, but as the film progressed, it simply hooked you in, silently and very subtly. You begin to feel for the characters, especially the two old parents, the way they seemed to talk right to you (as Ozu places them to talk directly into camera most of the time). It then, became very real and intense, in a very unintentional manner. I especially loved the scene where the old mother sincerely begs the daughter-in-law to just forget about their dead son and move on with her life, to get marry. She cries in the silence of the night, so does the mother, both feeling for the lost of their beloved one and for the situation at hand. Such power and grace one director has over his visuals.

When the lights came back on at the end of the film, I was convinced why it is one of the best - a love story which can be told a million times, yet, it does not fail to touch the very deepest corner of your heart, every single time.

Tokyo Story, 15 June 2005 at GSC Mid Valley