[Blu-Ray Review] Tokyo Story

[Guest 10924]

Comments attached to the Blu-Ray Review 'Tokyo Story' on Movies @ The Digital Fix

Greatest film of all time? Many critics think so! Out Now on Dual Format DVD/BD....

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[Guest 74191]

Judging by the screencaps, quality difference is negligible between BD & DVD. Strange, considering the upgrade in quality from, say, the Sunrise Blu-ray.

Has this film only recently gained its reputation here in the UK? At film school ten years ago, not one person (tutor or student) ever mentioned Tokyo Story (in hindsight, strange for a bunch of arty-farties), so had it not been for this site, I probably wouldn't even know the film existed.

[Shingster]

I think Ozu has only rose to prominence here in the UK over the last 20yrs or so thanks to theatrical showings and mostly the advent of DVD and the work of The Criterion Collection, Tartan Video and Artificial Eye (and I would say the last 10yrs has seen the biggest surge in his UK profile). I believe Tokyo Story was the one film of his that recieved critical acclaim and low-key attention in the west since long before the 90s though.

[Guest 45]

Judging by the screencaps, quality difference is negligible between BD & DVD. Strange, considering the upgrade in quality from, say, the Sunrise Blu-ray.

The difference is obvious when you play them both side by side, but screencaps don't really convey the Blu-ray transfer's virtues. For me, the main difference was that it looked and felt like an actual film print as opposed to a digital transfer: thankfully, the BFI doesn't believe in digitally smoothing out grain.

Has this film only recently gained its reputation here in the UK? At film school ten years ago, not one person (tutor or student) ever mentioned Tokyo Story (in hindsight, strange for a bunch of arty-farties), so had it not been for this site, I probably wouldn't even know the film existed.

Actually, for many decades Tokyo Story was just about the only Ozu film to have any kind of reputation in Britain - it's had at least four or five theatrical revivals since the mid-1970s, and it was one of the more reliable cash cows when I booked films for arthouse repertory cinemas in the late 80s/early 90s.

This is why it's the Ozu film that generally gets singled out in Best Film of All Time polls (it features on the 1992 and 2002 Sight & Sound polls), because it's the one more people are likely to have seen - although it's not necessarily superior to Late Spring, Early Summer, An Autumn Afternoon and half a dozen others.