Tokyo Story - Yasujiro Ozu (1953)

Conflict presented by generational differences, not by any sense of maliciousness or competition. When the grown children sent their parents away on holiday it isn't because they don't love them, but because city life doesn't mesh with country life, because older people don't mesh with younger people, because the gap of identification is too large. Each generation seems to realize this gap and their complete inability to bridge it. A universal theme that Ozu returned to again and again.

Ozu leaves room in his film for this quiet realization because he tones down realism to its bare minimum. The camera does not move, actors are almost stoic, important events (e.g., the mother's death) are removed through ellipsis. Noriko's weeping at the end of the film is a heightened moment because of this restraint throughout the rest of the film.

Ozu uses rhythmic audio (a chugging riverboat, the drone of insects), especially at the end, to indicate a continuation despite the separate between parent and child.