Tôkyô boshoku (1957)'s activity

Ozu's Tokyo Twilight bears its title well. If the family is normally the stand-in for post-War Japan as a culture, it feels like the end of that culture. The film is filled with wives leaving husbands and parents abandoning children - it is is principally the story of two sisters' reactions when their estranged mother returns to the fold - but it's more than that. A lot of post-War films are about the Americanization of Japan, and certainly, there are Western-style offices, drinks, cars and fashions here, but I'm more intrigued by the Chinese elements. These characters eat Chinese noodles and play Chinese games. It's like Ozu is saying that Japan destroyed itself and is being conquered by the countries it tried to conquer in the first half of the century. It's all about Japan being on the wane - culturally, morally, historically - and therefore so is our starring family (which again features a heartbreaking performance by Ozu's grande dame, Setsuko Hara), but the film isn't without hope. It's not yet night, only twilight. Of course, when has the sun been known to reverse direction..?