Desertman84 Tokyo Sonata is a film by acclaimed Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa about a middle class family experiencing trials and difficulties in the household in Tokyo.It stars Teruyuki Kagawa,Kyōko Koizumi,Yū Koyanagi,Kai Inowaki and Kōji Yakusho.It was an official entry of Japan at Cannes Festival back in 2008.Ryuhei Sasaki is a breadwinner of seemingly happy Japanese family in Tokyo, with Ryuhei looking after his teenage sons, Takashi and Kenji, with his wife, Megumi.But trouble begins when Ryuhei loses his job as his company started moved their operations in China,a country that provides cheaper labor.He is ashamed of his predicament that he keeps it a secret from his family.That is why he leaves every morning as if he is going to work.But in reality,he goes to employment centers hoping to land another job.One day,he meets an old friend Kurosu,who has a similar situation.Meanwhile,his lonely perfectionist wife,Megumi drifts through household duties, dreaming of buying a flashy car. While,his restless older son,Takashi enlisted in the U.S. Army and his sensitive younger son,Kenji secretly takes piano lessons by paying with his lunch money and practicing on a broken keyboard retrieved from someone's garbage.As the story progresses,we begin to witness many events that will bring about the deterioration of Sasaki family brought about by unemployment.Kurosawa,who is known for horror films such as The Ring,makes another great horror film of another kind.This time around,it is a film that explores the effects of the members of the Sasaki household brought about by the horrors of unemployment.Early in the film,I was expecting a melodrama.But Kurosawa makes the movie an exploration of the changes among the characters particularly the dysfunction brought about by the the sudden changes in the a happy family.It becomes a good film in the sense that it the story is far from being contrived and clichéd but rather a film that transcends many genres such as a dark comedy and a character study as well as a tale of redemption among the Sasaki family members after each one realizes that they can no longer trust one another to provide security and comfort.Another factor thrown in is the hard economic times that Japan is experiencing as the film provides the viewer many lessons on how to deal with it.Add to that,lessons taught to a viewer about kindness and human understanding.This is definitely highly recommended for people who love great films.

zetes Starts off wonderfully, but, as it nears the end, it starts to fall apart. In the very end, though, it pulls itself together well enough that I did like it, though I would consider it a disappointment (I had really been looking forward to it). Teruyuki Kagawa plays a salaryman who is laid off from his job. He does not tell his wife (Kyoko Koizumi) or two sons, but instead pretends he's still working while desperately looking for a new job. It kind of starts off like Cantet's Time Out, but it's a bit more focused on the rest of the family than that film was. Kurosawa is best known for his horror and thriller-type movies, and it's kind of nice to see him excelling so well at a domestic drama, almost of the same sort that Hirokazu Koreeda made the same year with Still Walking. Unfortunately, the film takes a weird turn in the final third. A bunch of crazy melodramatic thriller elements are added, and they all feel forced and unfitting. In particular, the plot line where the wife is kidnapped by a burglar feels too odd in this story. I think I understand what Kurosawa was going for, and I think he was actually trying to subvert the domestic drama somewhat, but he had such a powerful story going for him, and instead of subverting the genre, it feels more like he didn't know how to pull it all together to say something meaningful. The final sequence of the film is quite beautifully done, but it doesn't quite fix the problems that the odd developments created.

siderite For a foreigner like me, Japan is a mystery, both wonderful, weird and hard to understand, especially since most of my information about the country is anecdotal or (worse?) coming from mangas. I've met people having the greatest respect for Japanese customs and people who completely badmouth the country.From this perspective, Tokyo Sonata is a bit of a gem, showing me how ordinary Japanese people live and think. There is the family, standard issue of father, mother and two children, and there are the roles: head of the family, respectful housewife, rebellious teenager and confused child. What do they do when the economic crisis and the traditional value system clash?I thought the actors were good, the soundtrack as well (to be expected given the title), and the plot was slow but crisp. There must have been a lot of expectations on a guy directing movies when his last name is Kurosawa and not related to Akira, because the movie was overall an excellent film. However, given its two hour length and slow pace, I advice you look at it when in the mood for cinematography, not some easy entertainment. Also, it is a pretty sad drama in places, so be ready to empathize with some hard hit people.

arthera09 I am going to say right off the bat that I am only give this an 8 is because I probably never watch this again and I do not think I ever really need to see it again. I would recommend to my movie fan friends, but not much more than that and I would only recommend if they feel like a Japanese movie about a modern Japanese family in Tokyo. I thought it was a fantastic film and there was plenty that I felt was just absolutely perfect. The mother was my favorite character and the scene was she asks someone to pull her up was beautiful and then when she pulled herself up from her nightmare later in the movie was the perfect contrasting moment. I loved her zombie walk at the end even though it was a little over the top. I think my favorite thing about the movie was how it never showed the glitzy upbeat part of Tokyo and showed what a family growing up and living there sees. For me some of the scenes were extremely personal for me and one scene in particular could have been a exact shot of our family life and my interactions with my own father. Tokyo really is its own character here and not the Tokyo I was expecting. I loved some of the set up shots at the beginning that gave me the sense of what the city was like for these people. I love the timing on the train when it passed by the house. The kid was surprisingly good and was completely convincing for me. I guess I related to that character to a lot so it was easy for me to see him as a complete character. For the last scene which of course is slightly cliché and gives the movie a nice and warm feeling that my mom loved, but my favorite part of that scene was watching the father tear up. He never actually cries, but you see he really has a moment there. There were multiple scenes that made me smile as I watched them because they were really well done. The director has a future and I may keep an eye on him.