Wim Wenders' photographs are a tribute to great Japanese moviemaker Yasujiro Ozu and his 1953 masterpiece Tokyo Story.
The Movie: Tokyo Story (Tōkyō monogatari, 1953), is the best known work of director Yasujiro Ozu and is regularly quoted as one of the best films of all times. The elderly couple Shukichi and Tomi Hirayama decide to visit their grown-up children and their families in Tokyo. Having arrived after a long train ride they gradually realize that their eldest son, Koichi, a physician, and their eldest daughter, Shige, who runs a beauty parlor, have little time for them. Only Noriko, the widow of their son killed in World War II takes care of her parents-in-law. On the ride back to their home town Onomichi Tomi falls severely ill and they need to make a stop at their youngest son in Osaka. Back at their own apartment, Tomi's condition declines and the children rush to her mother's deathbed. After the funeral all children make haste to leave, only daughter-in-law Noriko and the youngest daughter who still lives with her parents stay with Shukichi.
The Photographs: Onomichi is the name of the town where the parents live and where they set out to visit their children. Here Yasujiro Ozu's movie starts end ends. Fifty years later, in 2005, Wim Wenders travelled to Onomichi following Ozu's tracks to become acquainted with the place that had impressed him so much in Ozu's movie. The pictures presented in the book are the result of this journey.
The Exhibition: The book appears to accompany an exhibition of Wim Wenders' photographs at Heiner Bastian's Galerie am Kupfergraben in Berlin, opening September 4. It serves as the exhibition catalogue.
Schirmer/Mosel. Catalogue to Berlin exhibition. With texts by Wim Wenders and Heiner Bastian. 64 pages, 24 colour plates, 20.8 x 24 cm, hardcover. English/German edition.