Tokyo Story (1953)

Chieko Higashiyama: Tomi Hirayama

Photos 

Quotes 

• 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.

• 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.

• Shukichi Hirayama : I'm surprised how children change. Shige used to be much nicer before. A married daughter is like a stranger.

  Tomi Hirayama : Koichi has changed too. He used to be such a nice boy.

  Shukichi Hirayama : Children don't live up to their parents' expectations. Let's just be happy that they're better than most.

  Tomi Hirayama : They're certainly better than average. We're fortunate.

  Shukichi Hirayama : I think so. We should consider ourselves lucky.

  Tomi Hirayama : Yes, we are very lucky.

• Shige Kaneko : [Tomi and Shukichi enter the hair salon]  Why, you're back so soon. You should have stayed longer!

  Tomi Hirayama : [as she passes Shige teasing a customer's hair]  We're home.

  Biyouin no kyaku : Who are they?

  Shige Kaneko : Oh, just friends from the country.

  [looks after Tomi and Shukichi with disdain] 

• Tomi Hirayama : What a treat to sleep in my dead son's bed.

• 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.

• 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.