One of the central ambiguities of his work for me is this question of what progress is inevitable

and what progress is not inevitable and is in fact unjust. In Tokyo Story, obviously the kids

can't be expected to stay at their family home for the rest of their lives and care for their

dear father. They have to go on with their lives.

But is it inevitable that, you know, the kids get a TV? Is it inevitable that those skyscrapers get built

on the Japanese skyline? I don't think Ozu knows the answer, and I'm not sure to what extent I know

the answer, but I think that's one of the central

ambiguities of his work. Yeah and if this were framed as a political question, I might have some

opinions about it. But Ozu's definitely not a political filmmaker. Not consciously at least.

Yeah, not consciously. He's a humanist observer and an incredibly insightful and prescient one.

Something else I want to talk about, I'm not quite sure where this fits in,

is the American iconography that's present in the movie.

One thing you notice everywhere is that there are a brand on almost every surface,

kind of even in people's houses, the brands figure quite prominently.

Some of them are Japanese. So in the the bar you see an Asahi poster which by the way great beer if you haven't

tried it and these brands clearly symbolize you know capitalist modernity descending on on

everybody after the war but there are some things you see in this movie that are that are very

distinctly American.

So for example, there's a scene where one of the elderly characters is walking out in the street outside their home and a kind of younger couple walks by and they're, you know, humming and kind of air drumming to what is clearly an American R&B track that's in their head.

The children are also, they're all learning

English and they do very cutely speak English a few times in the film. And it's interesting because

I don't think Ozu means these things to symbolize foreign intrusion into Japanese society or

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