More Things About Tokyo Story

What is playing in the soundtrack while Shukichi is drinking with his old friends at the first drinking establishment?

Why, it's the Imperial Japanese Navy Marching Song!!  And it's playing while Hattori is talking about losing his two sons in the war! What is Ozu thinking?  Anyway, the only reason why he can use this song is because the Occupation is over and thus the prohibition against nostalgic references to the war has ended.

Haven't been to Japan in a number of years, but a while back you would always hear this song being played in pachinko parlors.  Probably to get people in the mood to lose lots of money.  By the way, when the Hattoris talk about the "playboy" (he's a boy who plays a lot, not a playboy, in the original Japanese), they talk about how he spends his time playing "pinball," except that it's pachinko.

Here's something from a film by Wim Wenders:

And this is the absolutely extraordinary beginning of Wenders' film.  I probably won't be able to show this in class, but if you love film, you should watch this: