(Tokyo No Yado, Yasujiro Ozu, Japan 1935, 80 min.)

Silent Tuesdays. Silent cinema went well into the 1930s in Japan, for which the world can give thanks for the films of Yasujiro Ozu, one of the greatest realism directors in history. This slight tale of an unemployed workman and his two sons roaming the industrial landscape of Tokyo trying to find the wherewithal to live decently and crossing paths with a single mother and her young daughter is one of the most haunting films ever made, visually evocative and emotionally potent. Ozu was fascinated by American silent film, but he took overseas influences and tuned them to his own unique view of humanity and human motivations. Such humanism is rare in world cinema, and few of Ozu’s films equal this one for both tenderness and power.

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