Film Reviews

Tokyo Sonata

• Rating:
• Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
• Starring: Kyoko Koizumi
• Details: Japan/Netherlands/Hong Kong / 119mins (TBC).

With the economic downturn in full effect this is a timely release for J-Horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata. Ryuhei (Kagawa) lives a quiet life as an administrator but when his company learns that outsourcing will save them heaps he's fired. Too proud to tell his wife Megumi (Koizumi), Ryuhei pretends everything is as it was and takes off every day for 'work'; he wanders the streets where he meets an old school friend who has been living the same lie for months and gives him pointers to how to fool his family. Back home Megumi becomes increasingly bored as she keeps tabs on eldest son, college student Takashi (Koyanagi) and with everyone wrapped up in their own woes, no one notices that youngest son Kenji (Kai) is a musical prodigy who secretly spends his lunch money on piano lessons.

Tokyo Sonata is a very quiet film - even the tram that whizzes past the house doesn't disturb the soft mood inside - but in that ther's a tension that slowly escalates as Ryuhei's mental state begins to slip and family values disappear. Anchored in reality that's sometimes too tough to watch, Kurosawa is patient in his story telling and lets the plot unfold and doesn't get in its way with obstructive shots. Then it all falls apart as Kurosawa loses the plot completely. For reasons unknown the story goes off on a serious tangent that's in total contradiction with the mood the director was at a pains to convey earlier; the characters actions become incomprehensible and false and the spell that had worked wonders is broken. Maybe Kurosawa is telling us that what we've been doing hasn't worked and new rules are needed and this is echoed in Megumi's increasing frustration with parental tradition – she knows her husband is losing his grip and in that state he has right to discipline his children or call the shots at home. That's all well and good, but the film suffers from this new direction and doesn't recover until a beautiful final scene.

Review by Gavin Burke