Tokyo Twilight (1957)

 Yasujiro Ozu's "Tokyo Twilight"

With his 1957 film "Tokyo Twilight," Yasujiro Ozu made his darkest, bleakest, most existential film in his entire filmography. It was the very last black-and-white film he would ever make and is perhaps the best shot black-and-white film he's ever done. And yes, the dark, existential themes are enhanced through this exquisitely shot black-and-white production. "Tokyo Twilight" is perhaps the most unique piece in all of Ozu's oeuvre. 

The plot centers on two adult women, Akiko and Takako, who live with their single father, Shukichi. One sister, Akiko, is a college student with an unwanted pregnancy. The other, Takako, is running away from an unhappy marriage with her toddler. Soon, the two women their mother who abandoned their family from an early age works at a mahjong parlor, drudging up past traumas and old wounds.

Wim Wenders, in an interview with The Criterion Channel, stated that he believed Ozu was influenced by French existential cinema for "Tokyo Twilight," along with American Film Noir. I think there is certainly merit to this ponderance, but I also think that Mikio Naruse's 1955 film "Floating Clouds" can also be included to this attribution of influence. Ozu has even called Naruse's film "a real masterpiece."  Both films, to me, are quiet meditations on the soulless, dark, and empty existence of its characters. Naruse is a master of tone and the tone he set for "Floating Clouds" had an existential suffocation permeating its atmosphere. I think Ozu managed to do the same for "Tokyo Twilight." It has such an air of bleakness and pain floating in its orchestrated atmosphere that will have you reminiscing its empty shots of stagnant images and emotionally desolate tragedies in a cold sweat that will keep you up at night.

Aside from the particular tragedies within the plot, the true despair from the film is the space between its characters. The film is a tapestry of broken people with broken relationships that emotionally cripple them their entire life. Love is a desired trait, not an automatic foundation and human connection left a long time ago. It is this painfully empty and desolate atmosphere that makes "Tokyo Twilight" such a beautifully dark gift from the master of emotional filmmaking.