My heart seems to be waiting—for something.

KYOKO

Isn't life disappointing?

NORIKO

Yes, it is.

— Yasujiro Ozu and Koga Noda, Tokyo Story: The Ozu/Noda Screenplay, translated by Donald Richie and Eric Klestadt, Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press, 2003, p. 122.

Yes, but also:

SHUKICHI

Mother said she'd never seen a nicer woman than you.

NORIKO

She overestimated me.

SHUKICHI

You're wrong, Noriko.

NORIKO

She did. I'm not the nice woman she thought I was. If you see me like that—it embarrasses me.

SHUKICHI

No, it shouldn't.

NORIKO

No, really I'm quite selfish. Whatever you may imagine, I'm not always thinking of your son.

SHUKICHI

I'd be happy if you'd forget him.

NORIKO

There are days when I don't think of him at all . . . Then sometimes I feel that I just cannot go on like this. Sometimes at night I lie and wonder what will become of me if I stay this way. The days pass and nothing happens. I feel a kind of impatience. My heart seems to be waiting—for something. Oh, yes, I'm selfish.

SHUKICHI

You are not.

NORIKO

Yes, I am. But I couldn't tell Mother this.

SHUKICHI

That's all right. You are a truly good woman. An honest woman.

NORIKO

Not at all.

SHUKICHI gets up and from a drawer brings a woman's watch . . . .

— Ibid., p. 125.