Ozu Yasujiro’s Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari 1953) tells the story of an elderly couple’s visit to their children in Tokyo. The disappointments of the parents’ visit are related, somewhat obliquely, to their son’s and daughter’s immersion in their busy city lives and their, seemingly related, lapses in manners, respect, and consideration toward their parents. The only true affection and respect they receive comes from their widowed daughter-in-law, a woman in whom conflicts between tradition and modernity are embodied. Ozu’s distinctive approach to filmmaking a combination of highly individual technique and traditional aesthetics/*may be peculiarly suited to telling such a story and expressing its meanings. While many of the film’s details raise questions that cannot always be answered from a Westerner’s perspective it seems productive to look at Ozu’s…