
Often compared to the later neorealist classic The Bicycle Thief, An Inn in Tokyo chronicles three days in the life of an unemployed factory worker who wanders through Tokyo’s industrial hinterland with his two sons, looking for work. When he attempts to help a woman in financial distress, he turns to theft. In the film’s most famous sequence, the starving family has an imaginary picnic in the midst of a bleak landscape of smokestacks. David Bordwell suggests that in its rigorous visual patterning and plaintive themes, “An Inn in Tokyo constitutes a summary of Ozu’s silent work.”
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
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Yasujiro Ozu.
Woman of Tokyo / A Mother Should Be Loved
Live Musical AccompanimentScreening on Film

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Yasujiro Ozu.
Where Now are the Dreams of Youth?
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, 1932
Live Musical AccompanimentScreening on Film

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Yasujiro Ozu.
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, 1941
Screening on Film

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Yasujiro Ozu.
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, 1941
Screening on Film

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Yasujiro Ozu.
Record of a Tenement Gentleman
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, 1947
Screening on Film

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Yasujiro Ozu.
I Was Born But...
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, 1932
Live Benshi Performance by Midori SawatoLive Musical AccompanimentScreening on Film

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Yasujiro Ozu.
The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, 1952
Screening on Film

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Yasujiro Ozu.
An Autumn Afternoon
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, 1962
Introduced by Filmmaker Masahiro ShinodaScreening on Film
