This film ventures into slightly darker psychodramatic territory than much of Ozu's work, by courageously dramatizing and exploring issues such as maternal abandonment, broken families and substance abuse.
Tokyo Twilight(東京暮色)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Japan · 1957
2h 21m
Director Yasujirō Ozu
Starring Setsuko Hara, Ineko Arima, Chishū Ryū, Isuzu Yamada
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Two sisters discover that their mother, who they have long-believed to be dead, is in fact alive. The younger sister struggles to accept that they were abandoned as children. The two women embark on parallel paths into young adulthood as they navigate the newfound truth of their childhood.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
This rarely screened, melancholy 1957 film, Yasujiro Ozu’s last in black and white, is one of his best.
Tokyo Twilight' - [Ozu's] last black-and-white movie - takes him into unusually melodramatic territory, a dark disintegrating family saga that has broken marriages, unwanted pregnancy, gambling, prostitution, vice cops and so on. What's amazing, however, is that Ozu's narrative and visual ellipses keep sensationalism, hysteria and cliche at bay, so that it all rings true in ways undreamt of by most other directors. [10 May 2006, p.86]
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Ozu cherishes tradition but accepts the inevitability of loss and change, and is as all-embracing as Jean Renoir. His people may judge and not forgive, often understandably, but as one of the greatest filmmakers he does not do so. [04 Oct 2007, p.E13]
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Ozu is often wrongly characterized as a "soft" director preoccupied with middle-class home life, but this late film tackles extreme subject matter--spousal abuse and abortion--with unflinching skill. [18 Nov 2005, p.C6]
The New Yorker by Richard Brody
Yasujiro Ozu’s direction brings emotional depth and philosophical heft to this turbulent and grim family melodrama.
Users who liked this film also liked
Pickpocket
Despite the dangers and objections of those around him, Michel embarks on a journey of improving his pickpocketing craft.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1959
- Director Robert Bresson
- Cast Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Jean Pélégri, Dolly Scal, Pierre Leymarie, Pierre Étaix
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Amazon Video
Dolls
(ドールズ)
Love is eternal—for better or for worse.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2002
- Director Takeshi Kitano
- Cast Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tatsuya Mihashi, Chieko Matsubara, Kyoko Fukada, Tsutomu Takeshige
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Passenger
(Professione: reporter)
He used to be somebody else…but he traded himself in.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, Spain, France • 1975
- Director Michelangelo Antonioni
- Cast Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff, Ambroise Mbia
- Genre Thriller, Drama
- Available on Fandango At Home
Juliet of the Spirits
(Giulietta degli spiriti)
The inhibitions... the desires... the obsessions... of a jealous woman held prisoner by her own dreams
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 1965
- Director Federico Fellini
- Cast Giulietta Masina, Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu, Valentina Cortese, Valeska Gert, José Luis de Villalonga
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Amazon Video
Early Spring
(早春)
A young salary man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital affair.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1956
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Chikage Awashima, Takako Fujino, Ryô Ikebe, Daisuke Katô, Keiko Kishi, Kuniko Miyake
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel
Equinox Flower
(彼岸花)
A young woman disappoints her father by declining arranged marriage and choosing her spouse.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1958
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Shin Saburi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Ineko Arima, Yoshiko Kuga, Keiji Sada, Teiji Takahashi
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel
The End of Summer
(小早川家の秋)
The Kohayakawa family is thrown into distress when childlike father Manbei takes up with his old mistress.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1961
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Ganjiro Nakamura, Setsuko Hara, Yôko Tsukasa, Michiyo Aratama, Keiju Kobayashi, Masahiko Shimazu
- Genre Drama
- Available on Kanopy, Criterion Channel
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
(人間の條件 第1部純愛篇/第2部激怒篇)
A Japanese pacifist and socialist struggles to accommodate the demands of his country during wartime.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1959
- Director Masaki Kobayashi
- Cast Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima, Sō Yamamura, Akira Ishihama
- Genre Drama, History, War
- Available on Criterion Channel
Hail Mary
(Je vous salue, Marie)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Switzerland, United Kingdom • 1985
- Director Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast Myriem Roussel, Thierry Rode, Philippe Lacoste, Manon Andersen, Malachi Jara Kohan, Juliette Binoche
- Genre Drama
- Available on Cohen Media Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, YouTube, Kanopy
Miss Oyu
(お遊さま)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1951
- Director Kenji Mizoguchi
- Cast Kinuyo Tanaka, Nobuko Otowa, Yûji Hori, Kiyoko Hirai, Reiko Kongō, Eijirō Yanagi
- Genre Drama
- Available on Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel
Pitfall
(おとし穴)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1962
- Director Hiroshi Teshigahara
- Cast Hisashi Igawa, Sumie Sasaki, Sen Yano, Hideo Kanze, Kunie Tanaka, Kei Satō
- Genre Fantasy, Crime, Drama, Mystery
- Available on Criterion Channel
The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice
(お茶漬けの味)
A childless middle-aged couple faces a marital crisis of sorts.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1952
- Director Yasujirō Ozu
- Cast Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure, Koji Tsuruta, Chikage Awashima, Keiko Tsushima, Eijirô Yanagi
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
(不散)
A historic and regal theater in Taipei is screening its final film, the 1967 wuxia classic "Dragon Inn."
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Taiwan • 2003
- Director Tsai Ming-liang
- Cast Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-Chyi, Kiyonobu Mitamura, Miao Tien, Shih Chun, Chen Chao-jung
- Genre Drama
- Available on Metrograph, Kino Film Collection, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Rome 11:00
(Roma, ore 11)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Italy, France • 1952
- Director Giuseppe De Santis
- Cast Carla Del Poggio, Lucía Bosé, Lea Padovani, Maria Grazia Francia, Eva Vanicek, Massimo Girotti
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Stray Dogs
(郊遊)
A father and his children wander the margins of modern day Taipei, and spend their nights sleeping in abandoned buildings.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Taiwan, France • 2014
- Director Tsai Ming-liang
- Cast Lee Kang-Sheng, Lu Yi-Ching, Chen Shiang-Chyi, Chao-rong Chen, Yang Kuei-Mei
- Genre Drama
- Available on Metrograph, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, YouTube, Kanopy
Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Thailand • 2013
- Director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
- Cast Patcha Poonpiriya, Chonnikan Netjui, Thanapob Leeratanakajorn, Vasuphon Kriangprapakit, Udomporn Hongladdaporn, Rossarin Ananchanachai
- Genre Drama, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Propaganda
(YMO Propaganda)
The Capital of Glory
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1984
- Director Makoto Satō, Saito Shin
- Cast Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Brooks Palmer, Motoyoshi Wada
- Genre Music, Documentary
- Available on No streaming locations found.