“Tokyo Story is a quiet, sad, indescribably beautiful family story: it tells of a journey that does not fulfil its promise, of a life that is broken by modern civilization and becomes obsolete. Once again, the great traditionalist delves into the ultimate depths of his theme, which deals with ageing, dying, renunciation and failure; the sentence “Yes, it's true, when you lose yourself, you can only ever look for each other and you still won't find each other.” seems like a program. Ozu seeks refuge from the fleetingness of experience and the present in perfection, with crystal-clear and yet unfathomable images whose vanishing point points to infinity and whose precision can at best be compared to that of Robert Bresson. With his calm shots, this surprising figure in film history makes the greatest dramas, the most hidden human emotions palpable.” Bruno Jaeggi, Basler Zeitung 5.7.1983

Loan of the film print with kind support of the Cinémathèque Suisse.

Mabel tries to sell hot dogs at a car race, but isn't doing a very good job at it. She sets down the box of hot dogs and leaves them for a moment. Charlie finds them and gives them away to the hungry spectators at the track as Mabel frantically tries to find her lost box of hot dogs. Mabel finds out that Charlie has stolen them and sends the police after him. Chaos ensues.

Loan of the film print with kind support of Metropolis Archiv - Kinemathek Hamburg.

Selling pirate film CD’s on his chart, the young man has a humble and unpretentious life, sharing a room with his construction worker mates. Till the day, when an unknown passenger from the ferry asked him about a Japanese film he had never heard of. Looking after the film but waiting for the passenger, he slowly finds himself in a passionate affection, which grows parallel to the geranium he germinated from a leaf. One day he sees the passenger in a cafe, but cannot approach to talk to her. His waiting transforms into another dimension, where the passenger doesn’t hold any more importance. The film not only depicts this passionate story of the young CD vendor, but also a ballad to a disappearing film media and its makers, a media archeology of contemporary film culture in Istanbul.

Loan of the film print with kind support of HfG Karlsruhe.