Faith & Film presents Tokyo Story
In this quietly powerful masterpiece of world cinema, Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu explores the enduring bonds—and heartbreaking distances—between parents and their grown children. When an elderly couple travels from their rural home to visit their adult children in postwar Tokyo, they are met with indifference and preoccupation. Only their widowed daughter-in-law, Noriko, offers them genuine kindness and care.
Tokyo Story is a deeply human reflection on aging, duty, gratitude, and the shifting values across generations. With remarkable simplicity and emotional depth, Ozu captures the beauty and sorrow of ordinary life, asking questions that are as spiritual as they are social: How do we honor our parents? What does it mean to love sacrificially? What is lost when tradition gives way to modernity?
A perfect film for quiet contemplation, Tokyo Story invites us to see God's presence in the everyday and to consider how our lives reflect (or resist) the commandment to "honor your father and mother.”
Not Rated (1953), 136 min, Japanese (with subtitles), directed by Yasujirō Ozu
Trailer: https://youtu.be/xqO0d3328Do
Free Admission. Co-sponsored by First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and New College Berkeley.
About the Faith & Film series:
In this series we will examine the potent and relevant medium of film in exploring themes of love, faith, conscience, evil, death, reception, grace, morality, identity, and our yearning for the sacred. Each month we will view a different film––each unique, compelling, and demanding––reflecting our current times. Each film is curated by those who love this artistic medium and will host a conversation following our viewing. Co-sponsored by First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and New College Berkeley.
Event details:
FPCB is located at 2407 Dana Street, Berkeley, and the event will start promptly at 7PM in Geneva Hall, Room G202. There is is free parking in the FPCB underground parking lot on Channing Way. Sign in with the parking space number at the kiosk in the first floor reception area of the church. From the garage, take the elevator up to the first floor for reception and then continue to the 2nd floor for the film gathering.