assistant Ryōko Mizuki as a beauty salon client Yoshiko Togawa as a beauty salon client Kazuhiro Itokawa as a student Keijirō Morozumi as a police agent Tsutomu Nijima as Noriko's office boss Shōzō Suzuki as Noriko's office colleague Yoshiko Tashiro as a hotel maid Haruko Chichibu as a hotel maid Takashi Miki as a singer Binnosuke Nagao as the doctor at Onomichi Production Tokyo Story was inspired by the 1937 American film Make Way for Tomorrow, directed by Leo McCarey. Noda initially suggested the plot of the older film to Ozu, who hadn't seen it. Noda remembered it from its initial release in Japan. Both films depict an elderly couple and their problems with their family and both films depict the couple travelling to visit their children. Differences include the older film taking place in Depression-era US with the couple's problem being economical and Tokyo Story taking place in post-war Japan, where the problems are more cultural and emotional. The two films also end differently. David Bordwell wrote that Ozu "re-cast" the original film instead of adapting it. The script was developed by Yasujirō Ozu and his long-time collaborator Kōgo Noda over a period of 103 days in a ryokan called Chigasakikan in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. Ozu, Noda and cinematographer Yūharu Atsuta scouted locations in Tokyo and Onomichi for another month before shooting started. Shooting and editing the film took place from July to October 1953. Filming locations were in Tokyo (Adachi, Chūō, Taitō and Chiyoda), Onomichi, Atami and Osaka. Among the major cast members only Ryū, Hara and Kagawa participated in the Onomichi location. All indoor scenes, except those at the Tokyo Station waiting area and in a passenger car, were shot at the Shochiku Ōfuna Studio in Kamakura, Kanagawa. Ozu used the same film crew and actors he had worked with for many years. Actor Chishū Ryū said that Ozu was always happiest when finishing the final draft of a script and that there were never any changes to the final draft. Style and themes Like all of Ozu's sound films, Tokyo Story'''s pacing is slow. Important events are often not shown on screen but revealed through dialogue. For example, the train journeys to and from Tokyo are not depicted. A distinctive camera style is used, in which the camera height is low and almost never moves; film critic Roger Ebert noted that the camera moves once in the