Tokyo Story (1953)

Setsuko Hara: Noriko Hirayama

Photos 

Quotes 

• Kyoko : [after the rest of the family had left]  I think they should have stayed a bit longer.

  Noriko : But they're busy.

  Kyoko : They're selfish. Demanding things and leaving like this.

  Noriko : They have their own affairs.

  Kyoko : But you have yours too. They're selfish.

  Noriko : But Kyoko...

  Kyoko : Wanting her clothes right after her death. I felt so sorry for poor mother. Even strangers would have been more considerate!

  Noriko : But look Kyoko. At your age I thought so too. But children do drift away from their parents. A woman has her own life, apart from her parents, when she becomes Shige's age. She meant no harm I'm sure. They have to look after their own lives.

  Kyoko : I wonder: I won't ever be like that. Then what's the point of family?

  Noriko : But children become like that, gradually.

  Kyoko : Then... you, too?

  Noriko : I may become like that in spite of myself.

  Kyoko : Isn't life disappointing?

  Noriko : Yes, it is.

• Tomi Hirayama : You may be happy while you're still young. But as you become older, you'll find it lonely.

  Noriko : I won't get that old, so don't worry.

• Noriko : Sometimes I feel I can't go on like this forever. Often I wonder, when I can't sleep, what will become of me if I stay this way. Day passes and night comes, yet nothing happens, and I feel a kind of loneliness. My heart seems to be waiting for something.

• Noriko : I'm not always thinking of your son, though you think I am.

  Shukichi Hirayama : I'll be happy if you forget him.

• Noriko : I'm not the nice woman she thought I was. If you see me like that, it embarrasses me.

  Shukichi Hirayama : No, it shouldn't.

  Noriko : Really, I'm quite selfish.