Realism: Classical Hollywood Continuity Films vs. "Tokyo Monogatari"

The term “realism” was created in the early 1800’s in reference to a style of art that elaborated the style of living and everyday life in the nineteenth century. It brought to attention the ordinary things of life and made them extraordinary: a verisimilitude of reality. And even though the realism that we see today in film and film art expands on these concepts, I believe it emphasizes the role of everyday life in a new light; it takes the closely knit characters of this “everyday life” scenario and develops them in attention to the social factors that affect them.

In understanding how classical Hollywood continuity films create a different form of realism than Tokyo Story, one first must point out the contributing factors of realism in these Hollywood films. According to “Film Reference”, some kind of narrative causality constitutes the realism aspects of classical Hollywood continuity films. Since the plot of these films generally center around the protagonists and supporting characters, these individuals are subject to “whims of fate”. And it is through the chain of “cause-and-effect” that the narration is created. So in order to maintain an air of realism in these films, certain technical elements were evoked, such as creating the right costumes of the time period, having extra-diegetic music play over transitions and herald in character action as well as synchronized sound, producing different camera elements (fades, dissolves) to show the correct passage of time, and executing the right spatial continuity (180 degree rule, editing). Even the roles of an individual playing the “hero” or “villain” of these films contributed to its realism, because this certain typecasting was what the audience was looking for.

So what elements of realism did Tokyo Story adapt from this classical Hollywood continuity film style, and what elements separate it from those Hollywood films? Well it seemed there certainly was a unique narration with the elderly pair that decided to visit their grown-up children in Tokyo. But one could argue that Yasujiro Ozu did not intend for this film to convey a narrative at all. It is in my personal belief that this film was more an example of poetry than a narrative. The only thing that Tokyo Story and Hollywood have in common with this “narrative” concept is the idea that the elderly couple were subject to the chain of “cause-and-effect” of society on their children. As for the technical elements, Ozu tends to break the standard concept of what Hollywood would use as elements that convey realism. He tends to use more formalistic shots, rather than ones that stick to the 180 degree rule or the more common shots. Tokyo Story also seems to be in a different wheel of time; Ozu likes to prevent the common lapse of time from occurring, by either showing elaborate shots of the surrounding landscape or virtually stopping time with his ability to manipulate his camera shots. But even though the progression of time separates this form of realism from Hollywood’s, it is realism nonetheless. But what I think separates this realism from all others is his conventional method of ignoring the rise-and-fall action of classical Hollywood films. He contributes what he has to say through his characters and the environment around them, and then he just drops them back off into the world in which they started at the beginning of the movie...as if life never stopped. What a concept of realism.

http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Realism-MAKING-MOVIES-REAL.html