- Chishu Ryu, who plays 70-year-old Zhou Ji, looks quite old in the film, but in fact he was only 49 years old.
- Setsuko Hara often played the role of the military's wife before the war. In this film, she played the role of Hirayama, the survivor who lost her husband in the war.
- The original negative of the film was burnt down in the basement of a research room in Yokohama after the film was produced.
- Because of director Ozu’s special upward-shooting technique, all indoor scenes built for the movie must have a ceiling.
- The banner slogans that appeared in the movie were all written by the director Yasujiro Ozu.
- The movie is inspired by Leo McCarley's "Tomorrow's Song". But in fact, the director Yasujiro Ozu has never seen this movie. It was the screenwriter Takao Noda.
- The film was not released in the United States until one year after the death of director Yasujiro Ozu in 1964.
Tokyo Story behind the scenes gags
2021-12-22 08:01
Extended Reading
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Shige Kaneko: Mama, you've grown taller.
Tomi Hirayama: Don't be silly. How could I have grown?
Shige Kaneko: But you have, and you're even fatter.
[turns to Noriko]
Shige Kaneko: She was so big when I was little that I used to feel ashamed in front of my friends. Once in school, a chair broke under her.
Tomi Hirayama: Oh, that chair was already broken.
Shige Kaneko: She still thinks that.
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Tomi Hirayama: [speaking to her little grandson Isamu] - What are you going to be when you grow up? A doctor like your father?
[Isamu doesn't answer and continues to pick grass]
Tomi Hirayama: By the time you become a doctor, I wonder if I'll still be here.