Tokyo Chorus seems to be the transition film between Ozu's earlier student comedies and his examination of the plight of the worker in tuff economic times he focuses on later. He introduces here a lot of elements and themes he would expand later and employs elliptical cut-aways for the first time I am aware of. Episodic in nature, but very focused on its main theme, the script centers once more on the question of masculinity and how men negociate their status in trying times. Every episode in the story is used to investigate a different facet of our main character's fight for male status. As is often the case, I am not entirely happy about Ozu's resolution of the problem, but Tokyo Chorus has to be counted among his (many) classics for its technical amplitude alone. The film's narrative structure is extraordinariy symmetric. We open and close with the same group of people, and in between, sequences forebode and recall each other.
On the day he gets paid a bonus, Shinji loses his job because he protests against the firing of another older colleague. When his daughter gets ill and has to be hospitalized, he has no choice but to sell his wife's kimonos to pay the medical bills. Later, he encounters his old teacher Omura who hires him to promote his restaurant. It is a tedious and, in Shinji's eyes, humiliating job but in the end, Omura finds him a real job as an English teacher in the countryside.
Tokyo Chorus opens on a slapstick college scene that establishes a lot of what we are going to see later in the film in more detail. Omura is a teacher and tries to bring order to a horde of defiant students. Among them, Shinji is one of the more flamboyant and impudent ones and he gets reprimended by Omura. We get glimpses into both Shinji's and Omura's characters and a first questioning of male dominance: in this case, it is young men mocking the authority of older men. Cut to years later. Shinji now works at an insurance company and it's the day everyone gets their bonus. Here, Ozu scrutinizes two models of male authority: financial providing and age. In an elaborate and expertly shot comedy sequence, the employees all hide from another how much they got paid. No one wants to lose his face should he reveal that he received less than a colleague. Everyone wants to project the image of the reliable provider. In the same sequence, Yamada is fired, simply because he is old, which reminds the whippersnappers in the office that their status as providers will, one day, inevitably be threatened as well, simply because the corporation wants to pump new blood into the workforce. Shinji, mirroring the first scene in which he ridiculed his elders, now stands up for them and speaks up to the boss - but is fired as well.
Next, Ozu gives us three stages of Shinji as father figure. After losing his job, Shinji buys his son a scooter, although the son wanted a bike. The son calls his father a liar, questioning Shinji's authority as the man of the house. Shinji's reaction? He beats his son. Later, when the family brings the daughter back from the hospital, Shinji acts as a unifying figure. He cheers up his kids by playing clapping games with them, and after recovering from the shock that her husband had to sell her kimonos in order to pay the medical bills, Shinji's wife joins them as well. But this family bliss doesn't last long. His wife and two kids spot him from a streetcar as he drags himself through the streets handing out leaflets for Omura's grease spoon (a scene that mirrors an earlier one where Shinji happens on Yamada who must hand out leaflets to make ends meet), a task he considers beneath someone who graduated from college. Even his wife won't believe it at first. When she confronts Shinji about it, his last shred of manhood his torn away. Not only does he not fulfill his role as provider by getting fired and being unable to find a new position. But he has to demean himself by doing work that is below his social (and male) status. The end foreshadows both Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family and The Only Son. In a scene where all of Shinji's old college chumps convene in Omura's restaurant, there is a very strong sense of nostalgia and a reflection on what time does to individuals that will later be developed in The Only Son. The resolution of the main crisis (Shinji's unemployment) demands relocating the family which will also be the case in Toda.
On the day he gets paid a bonus, Shinji loses his job because he protests against the firing of another older colleague. When his daughter gets ill and has to be hospitalized, he has no choice but to sell his wife's kimonos to pay the medical bills. Later, he encounters his old teacher Omura who hires him to promote his restaurant. It is a tedious and, in Shinji's eyes, humiliating job but in the end, Omura finds him a real job as an English teacher in the countryside.
Tokyo Chorus opens on a slapstick college scene that establishes a lot of what we are going to see later in the film in more detail. Omura is a teacher and tries to bring order to a horde of defiant students. Among them, Shinji is one of the more flamboyant and impudent ones and he gets reprimended by Omura. We get glimpses into both Shinji's and Omura's characters and a first questioning of male dominance: in this case, it is young men mocking the authority of older men. Cut to years later. Shinji now works at an insurance company and it's the day everyone gets their bonus. Here, Ozu scrutinizes two models of male authority: financial providing and age. In an elaborate and expertly shot comedy sequence, the employees all hide from another how much they got paid. No one wants to lose his face should he reveal that he received less than a colleague. Everyone wants to project the image of the reliable provider. In the same sequence, Yamada is fired, simply because he is old, which reminds the whippersnappers in the office that their status as providers will, one day, inevitably be threatened as well, simply because the corporation wants to pump new blood into the workforce. Shinji, mirroring the first scene in which he ridiculed his elders, now stands up for them and speaks up to the boss - but is fired as well.
Next, Ozu gives us three stages of Shinji as father figure. After losing his job, Shinji buys his son a scooter, although the son wanted a bike. The son calls his father a liar, questioning Shinji's authority as the man of the house. Shinji's reaction? He beats his son. Later, when the family brings the daughter back from the hospital, Shinji acts as a unifying figure. He cheers up his kids by playing clapping games with them, and after recovering from the shock that her husband had to sell her kimonos in order to pay the medical bills, Shinji's wife joins them as well. But this family bliss doesn't last long. His wife and two kids spot him from a streetcar as he drags himself through the streets handing out leaflets for Omura's grease spoon (a scene that mirrors an earlier one where Shinji happens on Yamada who must hand out leaflets to make ends meet), a task he considers beneath someone who graduated from college. Even his wife won't believe it at first. When she confronts Shinji about it, his last shred of manhood his torn away. Not only does he not fulfill his role as provider by getting fired and being unable to find a new position. But he has to demean himself by doing work that is below his social (and male) status. The end foreshadows both Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family and The Only Son. In a scene where all of Shinji's old college chumps convene in Omura's restaurant, there is a very strong sense of nostalgia and a reflection on what time does to individuals that will later be developed in The Only Son. The resolution of the main crisis (Shinji's unemployment) demands relocating the family which will also be the case in Toda.
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