Shinji Okajima stands up for a colleague at his insurance company and gets fired on the annual bonus day. Okajima, married with three children, must find ways to cope with the sudden loss by selling his wife’s clothes. Unsuccessful at finding a new job, he stumbles upon his old P.E. teacher, who asks him to help promote his restaurant and a new life starts from there. Tokyo Chorus exemplifies Ozu’s realistic approach to comedy and is widely considered to be a turning point in his career, marking the emergence of a more mature style (he already had 21 films under his belt and had churned out 7 in the previous year alone). Though it is something of a genre hybrid (there are elements of the student comedy, salaryman film, and domestic drama), Tokyo Chorus feels anything but overstuffed. Instead, it’s a lovingly modulated, pared-down slice of life, with equal doses of humor and poignancy.
Pre-recorded musical accompaniment.
