Tokyo Story and a classical Hollywood continuity film create two different forms of realism.

Classical Hollywood continuity is also called the realist narrative that has made the Hollywood movie industry what it is, a powerful and influential industry that has stood the test of time and made copious amounts of profit and reached global audiences pretty much since its insertion. It's the now familiar recipe, a fictional world, a problem, a chain of events, human interactions, a hero, a resolution. Throw in some explosions and scantly clad girls, a pinch of profanity, violence to taste, done!

Tokyo Story can be considered an anti-Hollywood film. It is an acclaimed 1952 film by Yasujiro Ozu. The story is rather dull when compared to the fast pace of current American productions. The story is about a Japanese older couple who take their first trip to the big city, Tokyo, to visit their kids, now adults and married. They are received with a certain amount of awkwardness and they don't feel very welcome. The mom returns home, gets sick and dies. The climatic moment comes when the mother-in-law passes away. The moment ends in the same note it is introduced, unannounced. The children are called to the funeral and after that, the father continues on on his lonely and empty life. The movie feels gray, bleak, slow and unsatisfying. That is because our generation is used to the visual tricks, the frantic pace, the glitz and glamor of Hollywood films. Critics have hailed Tokyo Story as a masterpiece, invoking life as it really happens, no explosions, no alien invasions, no conspiracy theories. Instead, there are only mild family interactions, the usual clash of generations, the loneliness of old age. It is obvious to see that Tokyo Story is indeed very realistic.

On the other hand, spectators hunger for action and adventure, for an escape from their own uneventful lives. Hollywood knows how to play up these urges, by exposing an exciting reality, that is in essence unachievable in the real world by normal people. The public can still relate to that, however, because the emotions are real, it's the genius mixture of reality and fantasy that accounts for Hollywood immense success.