Tokyo Twilight

In his most piercing portrait of family strife, Ozu follows the parallel paths of two sisters contending with an absent mother, unwanted pregnancy, and marital discord. As Manuel Cintra Ferreira suggests, the film maintains a dialogue with its contemporary North American cinema and, in particular, with Elia Kazan's East of Eden through a common motif: the "discovery" of the mother as the starting point for a drama of separation. Ozu's final black and white film, Tokyo Twilight is also his most sombre work, filled with a cynicism that contrasts with the filmmaker's distinctive optimistic humour, and which invites us to accept the tragic dimension of life.