An Inn in Tokyo is a 1935 film from Japan directed by Yasujiro Ozu.
Kihachi is an unemployed lathe operator and a single dad with two young sons, Zenko and Masako. As the story opens, the little family is in desperate straits. They wander a Tokyo industrial district, with Kihachi desperately looking for work, but there is no work to be had. They are hungry, and sometimes they have to sleep out in the open, and when they do find lodging it's sleeping on the floor of an inn with other homeless people.
Kihachi's luck turns when he runs into Otsune, an old friend from years ago. She is the proprietor of an inn, and she lets Kihachi and the boys stay there, and she finds Kihachi a job. Meanwhile, Kihachi grows acquainted with Otaka, a pretty woman with a daughter named Kimiko who is just as poor and desperate as Kihachi is.
Yasujiro Ozu's last surviving silent film.
Tropes:
- Downer Beginning: The first scene shows Kihachi and his sons, hungry and bedraggled, wandering around the Koto district as he looks for work. He walks up to a factory only to be rudely rejected by the guard.
- Healthcare Motivation: Otaka takes a job as a sake club hostess to provide for Kimiko, who is suffering from chronic dysentery. Kihachi then resorts to theft to get the money needed for Kimiko's doctor.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kihachi goes thieving, and heads off to arrest and imprisonment, to get the money to save little Kimiko.
- Japanese Politeness: Seen frequently, like when Kihachi keeps a cheerful smile plastered to his face even when he's pleading for Otsune to help him find a job, saying "Please, I beg you."
- Jobless Parent Drama: A penniless, jobless Kihachi desperately looks for work to feed his hungry sons.
- Kitchen Sink Drama: A tale of the desperately poor underclass in Tokyo.
- Love Triangle: Kihachi develops feelings for Otaka, while Otsune clearly fancies him.
- Missing Mom: Literally. When Otsune asks what happened to the boys' mother, Kihachi shrugs and says he doesn't know.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Ends with Kihachi walking away, as he goes off to turn himself in to the cops.
- The Place: Otsune's inn, where Kihachi and his sons briefly find refuge.
- Single Mom Stripper: Apparently all Otaka is doing is working in a hostess club, which doesn't involve anything more than conversation with the patrons. But Otaka and Kihachi both act like she's stripping or hooking, with Otaka breaking down in tears when Kihachi finds out and Kihachi saying that Kimiko would rather have died.
