Takashi, the oldest son, joins the US military and is deployed to war in the Middle East. Tokyo Sonata is about a middle-class family in Tokyo, the Sasakis, which consists of Ryūhei Sasaki, his wife Megumi, and their two sons Takashi and Kenji. “Tokyo Sonata” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Takashi sends a letter home from the field, noting that he has realized that the U.S military is not the only right side and that he will stay in the Middle East to search his happiness there. As mentioned, it contains no supernatural elements, no ghosts, killers, or monstrous flora and fauna. He pockets it and encounters Megumi while fleeing the bathrooms, from whom he runs away. We are wrong. The conclusion does not resolve them; instead, we return to look at them, knowing what we know now. Family dysfunction, two off-screen deaths and one bloody hit-and-run. Kenji, the younger son, wishes to learn to play the piano, even though his father refuses to allow him piano lessons. <> is a realist film about a Middle Class Family of Japan. We are blindsided by its beauty. It is terrifying because it is about us. Ryūhei then despairingly wanders into the Tokyo night, is hit by a truck, and left for dead. In the following sections, they are developed in passages revealing the secrets or potentials of both. Review: Tokyo Sonata. Tags Kiyoshi Kurosawa Kyoko Koizumi Teruyuki Kagawa Tokyo Sonata. The entrance of a completely unexpected character results in an instinctive acceptance of the new situation, providing a sad payoff to what at first seems merely arbitrary. Prime Video $3.99 — $19.99 Blu-ray $47.07 DVD from $7.90 Multi-Format from $138.99 Additional DVD … The final scene depicts Kenji performing "Clair de Lune" from the Suite bergamasque at his audition with Megumi, Ryūhei, and his piano teacher watching. Tokyo sonata (DVD) : Story of a contemporary Japanese family torn apart after its patriarch unexpectedly loses his job. But that's not what we're given by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, best known for upscale horror films. Old tapes have been destroyed. A sonata is a classical form in which two musical ideas are intercut. An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company. Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) announces he has enlisted in the U.S. Army as a way to gain citizenship, as he sees no future for himself in Japan. — MuzikJunky. His wife sees him there, knows everything, stays quiet. It simply shows how lives torn apart by financial emergencies can be revealed as being damaged all along. Tokyo Sonata Teruyuki Kagawa (Actor), Kyôko Koizumi (Actor), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Director, Writer) & Rated: PG-13. He lies on the side of the street amid some leaves and sleeps there overnight, only to find himself waking up in the morning unharmed. The Sasaki family, a middle-class household at the heart of urban Tokyo, relish and rely upon the constant income provided by patriarchal figure Ryūhei. <> is a realist film about a Middle Class Family of Japan. Meanwhile, as he cleans the bathrooms at the mall where he works, Ryūhei discovers an envelope stuffed with cash behind one of the toilets. Ryuhei (Teruyuki Kagawa) is an Everyman, a Tokyo husband and father of two, who, unexpectedly laid off from his job, finds he is a soldier in a vast army of unemployed men concealing their shameful realities from their families and friends. Y et another of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s chilling portraits of micro and macro alienation, Tokyo Sonata is a family drama as chillingly controlled and despondent as the horror films that gained him international recognition. Unwilling to answer the questions of the police, Kenji is charged as an adult and kept in a group cell overnight. TOKYO SONATA. TOKYO SONATA is a portrait of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family. Verified Purchase. Ryuhei joins hopeless queues at an employment office. These folks arguably owe most or all of their tumult to the ignorance of the stubborn, obstreperous patriarch, Ryuhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa), whose actions set the stage for the misfortune to come. Some reviews and commentaries describe Tokyo Sonata, winner of this year’s Asian Film Awards for best film and best screenplay, as showing the disintegration of an “ordinary” Japanese family after the husband-father gets laid off from his administrative post at a big corporation.Although technically that is an accurate summary of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s study of social and personal … Four months later, Ryūhei appears to be engaged in his cleaning job. Tokyo Sonata (トウキョウソナタ, Tōkyō Sonata) is a 2008 Japanese film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. He deposits the envelope of cash in a local lost-and-found bucket, and is the last to arrive back at the house, where the three family members share a meal together without mentioning the events of the previous night. At times, Tokyo Sonata feels like a Bergman film: blond-wood interiors, classical-music soundtrack, family resentments ticking down to explosion. Review: Tokyo Sonata. Movies. There's more horror in his new Tokyo Sonata, but it's an everyday sort: The slashing is of payrolls, not arteries. Kai Inowaki, Koji Yakusho. Perhaps he feels so inadequate he's threatened by any success involving his family. Rated PG-13 He is an autocratic father, filled with anger. His wife, Megumi, is a source of predictable domesticity, centering on cleaning, sewing and the preparation of meals. There is a soup kitchen. In the opening scene, Ryuhei (Teruyuki Kagawa) is fired. The wind of change is blowing as a family grapples with … A skilful and continually surprising drama, Tokyo Sonata depicts the gradual deterioration of an ordinary Japanese family after its breadwinner loses his job owing to corporate downsizing. The next morning, the robber has driven the stolen car into the ocean, and Megumi returns home. He is released the following day when the charges are dismissed. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2008 motion picture Tokyo Sonata puts across an account involving a Japanese family as it needs to go through a series of problems that put their determination to test. Watch it play out. Just as the economic crisis has jolted everyday life, so it shakes up "Tokyo Sonata," which begins as a well-behaved story and takes detours into the comic, the macabre and the sublime. Pretending to depart each day for work, he actually kills time in libraries and parks. After a long drive, he allows her leave the car to use the restroom where she has the opportunity to escape. In the beginning, they are introduced. Many men in Japan do the same, no big deal, but hypocrisy is the point. Films in 2020 to look forward to after cinemas reopen . Unable to lose face by admitting his job loss, Ryuhei leaves "for the office" every day and lingers in a cheerless concrete oasis with other jobless men. Tokyo Sonata was an official entry at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Young Kenji (Kai Inowaki), no longer attending school, spends his money on piano lessons with the beautiful Kaneko (Haruka Igawa). Related articles. We believe we know where "Tokyo Sonata" is going. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's drama Tokyo Sonata introduces the audience to a contemporary Japanese clan, the Sasakis, who suffer from as much dysfunction as any movie family in recent memory. His father forbids him. And then the film finds a form of release in another unexpected scene. Nothing is for sure. Tokyo Sonata reminded me a little of two French movies about salaryman-delusion: Laurent Cantet's Time Out (2001) and Nicole Garcia's The Adversary (2002), both based on … While attempting to find a new job, Ryūhei encounters an old classmate on the street, Kurosu, who has also recently been downsized. Ashamed, he keeps this a secret, but as he grows more despondent, his family resorts to drastic measures to break away from their fractured lives. Find trailers, reviews, synopsis, awards and cast information for Tokyo Sonata (2008) - Kiyoshi Kurosawa on AllMovie - A typical household secretly teeters on the verge… His humiliation is underlined when all maintenance workers must change into one-piece coveralls at lockers in full view of passing customers. Powered by JustWatch. All you know about three-act structure is going to be useless in watching this film, even though, like many sonatas, it has three movements. An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company. It … The "themes" in this movie are the father and his family. He finds work cleaning toilets in a shopping mall. Freedom has been asserted. 4.0 out of 5 stars Tokyo Sonata succinctly builds up a crescendo of realism before culminating on a heartfelt chord. Y et another of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s chilling portraits of micro and macro alienation, Tokyo Sonata is a family drama as chillingly controlled and despondent as the horror films that gained him international recognition. Find trailers, reviews, synopsis, awards and cast information for Tokyo Sonata (2008) - Kiyoshi Kurosawa on AllMovie - A typical household secretly teeters on the verge… Overview of Tokyo Sonata, 2008, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, with Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Kôji Yakusho, at Turner Classic Movies Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 4 out of 5 stars,[3] while Nick Schager of Slant Magazine gave it 3 out of 4 stars. Firstly, is a Generation Gap of family members ,in Tokyo Sonata, we can see the brother of Sasaki’s family are lack of communication, they didn’t have any converse in movie ,even Takashi have a big decision to left to this home ,Kenji seems didn’t have any concern about it ,just be a bystander of a conflict of his father and his brother . Is there a happy ending? Every family has its secrets. Megumi consoles the robber that he is not a failure, saying that he is the only person who can be himself. When his parents find out about Kenji's secret piano lessons, Megumi, who is generally closer to the children, is supportive, but Ryūhei is so furious that he attacks his son, accidentally causing him a minor concussion. Later that night, as the robber sleeps, Megumi spots a strange light on the horizon over the sea. [USA release]. This film have not mention about the warmth of a family, unlike other Japanese Drama,they prefer another way to present the most common situation of Japanese family – dull diary life. All you know about three-act structure is going to be useless in watching this film, even though, like many sonatas, it has three movements. It opens on a note of routine, of a family so locked into … Tokyo Sonata is about a middle-class family in Tokyo, the Sasakis, which consists of Ryūhei Sasaki, his wife Megumi, and their two sons Takashi and Kenji. Lessons secretly, and Tokyo Sonata ( トウキョウソナタ, Tōkyō Sonata ) is laid from. 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