A necessary film, in the way that vegetables are necessary.

An elderly couple leave their small fishing village to travel to Tokyo to visit their children and grandchildren. Armed with a small packed lunch and the most perfectly packed suitcase you will ever see, they embark on their train journey to the metropolis. Once there, though, they discover that though they are welcome enough - their son "Koichi" ((Sô Yamamura) - a paediatrician, and his beautician sister "Shige" (Haruko Sugimura) are pretty much caught up in their own lives and have little time to spend with their parents. In a land where duty is everything, this film depicts the rather unfeel... read the rest.