- 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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Tomi Hirayama: [saying good-bye at the train station] You were so nice to us, children. Now that we've seen you all, you need not come down, even if anything should happen to either one of us.
Shige Kaneko: Don't talk like that. This isn't a farewell.
Tomi Hirayama: I mean it. We live too far away.
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Tetsudou-shokuin: How old is she?
Keizo Hirayama: Let me see. She's way over 60. Sixty-seven or 68, maybe.
Tetsudou-shokuin: Very old. Take good care of her. "Be a good son while your parents are alive."
Keizo Hirayama: That's right. "None can serve his parents beyond the grave."