Tokyo Sonata (2009)

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

(3 ½ out of 4)

 

Review by Matthew Lucas: I've always been fascinated with how films reflect the times in which they are made. I enjoy looking back at older films to see how they reflected their contemporary climates. To this end, it's interesting to look at current films to assess how they deal, both directly and indirectly, with today’s global economic crises. Last year's "Wendy and Lucy," for example, perfectly captured America's dire economic situation through a deeply personal lens. Now, along comes Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata," which takes a look at unemployment and familial woes from a decidedly Japanese perspective. The film centers around a seemingly normal family. The father, Ryuhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa), is a successful businessman who finds himself suddenly downsized as part of widespread company cutbacks. Too ashamed to tell his wife, Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi), he continues to leave for work every day, but instead spends his time in bread lines and hanging out with other laid off businessmen.

At home, Ryuhei continues to practice his strict traditionalist attitudes, especially when it comes to his children, Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) and Kenji (Kai Inowaki). The former is a somewhat rebellious teenager who wants to serve Japan by joining the American military as part of their new foreign program; the latter is a gifted child prodigy who wants to focus his life on playing the piano. Ryuhei vehemently forbids the dreams of both his children, seemingly unaware of Takashi's maturity and of Kenji's immense talent. In secret, Kenji begins spending his monthly lunch money on clandestine piano lessons, and in the process becomes more talented than any of them could have imagined. Megumi, the stoic family matriarch, struggles to keep the family together, while the pressures of her husband's lies and the well being of her beloved children begin to weigh heavily on her. When Ryuhei takes a job as a janitor at a local mall, his shame and the family's strife comes to a breaking point, and they must all decide where their true passions lie.

Coming from outside the Japanese culture, and indeed never having been to Japan, I found "Tokyo Sonata" to be not just a fascinating cultural study, but a powerful humanist drama as well. The themes here are undeniably universal; familial bonds, economic strife and the achievement of one’s hopes and dreams are universal constants. Kurosawa takes this family and forces us to compare them to our own, his film acting as a mirror, and even when “Tokyo Sonata” threatens to veer off the rails, as in the last act, Kurosawa keeps the focus clear, culminating it all in an extraordinarily moving finale.

Given the current economic situation in America, the themes of "Tokyo Sonata" resonate all the more. The plight of the unemployed Ryuhei, his shame and the trouble it brings his family, is the kind of thing more and more people are being faced with today. Through the power of Kurosawa’s finely tuned script and simple, straight forward direction, the filmmaker gives us a family portrait that could easily be transposed anywhere. The ties that bind a family transcend location and culture, and the film’s humane narrative gives us all something to relate to. Where other family dramas fail, this one succeeds.

Last Word

"Tokyo Sonata" is a deeply personal look at how modern families cope during hard times. It presents a stinging portrait of survival in a slumping economy. Featuring a deeply moving finale, "Tokyo Sonata" is easily one of the best films early out of the gate in 2009.

Review By:
Matthew Lucas, Staff Writer

IN REVIEW ONLINE