Japan, 146 mins
Shukichi and Tomiko come to Tokyo from their remote island village to visit their three children. However, between his son’s medical practice, his daughter’s hairdressing business and his other son’s late night theatre work, they have little time for their parents. Over the course of a very long film, the children are forced to look at what is important to them, and for their parents to lament the changes in society.
The characters are delightful and the film feels very natural, however I found it far too long and I had very little interest in any of them. I couldn’t understand why the children had not planned for a rare visit from their parents, and just ended up feeling terribly sad for their parents.
Tokyo Family screens at the Forum on Friday, July 26 at 11am and at Greater Union on Saturday, August 3rd at 1:30pm.
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