Honor

I have often been told by old folks in my church that I ought to love my parents while they are alive; because one day they will be gone. "Tokyo Story" echoed that lesson to me. The grown children in this movie do not treat their parents very well. They try to please them, showing them the honor that they are due, but they try to do it with the least amount of inconvenience to themselves. The parents notice this; they're not stupid; but they try just as hard to not inconvenience their children; and if that means leaving their children alone, then that is what the old parents will do. The parents came to Tokyo to visit their children, but they only stayed for a couple days, and then they went home. The old mother dies suddenly after returning home, and I think the children (or atleast one of them) realize how they wasted their time with their mom. "I cannot serve her beyond the grave," one of the sons says, apparently quoting a Japanese proverb.

It was interesting how hard everyone tried to make the children's actions toward their parents seem right. "They are grown up-they have their own lives to tend to," the sister-in-law explains. "They are pretty good children-certainly not the worst," the old parents say to each other. But it is the sister-in-law's actions that show the shame of the children most clearly; the way she serves her parents-in-law with love, sacrificing all her comfort to give them the best visit to Tokyo that they can have. She is the one who honors them the most.