Much like E1 Entertainment's presentation of Departures, Tokyo Sonata arrives in a 1.85:1 widescreen-enhanced image that grasps onto the film's visual tone nicely. Kagawa does the heavy dramatic lifting in Tokyo Sonata, convincingly portraying a good man flailing against reality. 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. At times, Tokyo Sonata feels like a Bergman film: blond-wood interiors, classical-music soundtrack, family resentments ticking down to explosion. Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer. At times, Tokyo Sonata feels like a Bergman film: blond-wood interiors, classical-music soundtrack, family resentments ticking down to explosion. Sign up here. I absolutely love my new Sonata. Read full review 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. At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival it won the Jury Prize of the Un Certain Regard section. ‘Tokyo Sonata’ looks at the gradual dismantling of the nuclear family and, as intentionally underplayed as it is, hides a powerful undercurrent. repeat of Wednesday program 4:00 MUSIC FROM GERMANY - by German composers and performers: It is terrifying because it is about us. Despite his reputation as a leading J-Horror auteur, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has tended to eschew the grisly thrills and spectral manifestations of his peers for a more diffuse atmosphere of mystery and dread. Facebook Twitter Reddit. Tokyo Sonata centers on the Sasaki household, a middle-class family in Tokyo firmly entrenched in the stagnant routine of daily life. Tokyo Sonata is the ultimate expression of this quality of Kurosawa's cinema. and the Terms and Policies, Now along comes Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata, which takes a look at unemployment and family woes from a decidedly Japanese perspective. Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series presents Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this dual-layer disc. He finds work cleaning toilets in a shopping mall. 3:30 JAPANESE PRESS REVIEW - Japan's perspective on international issues in a program for Radio Japan 3:45 LONDON ECHO - a BBC magazine of the Arts . Tokyo Sonata marks his turn at a different type of cinema focusing on the drama of a family unit rather than his usual horror forays. Read More Freedom has been asserted. Though his latest to hit the American big screen, “Tokyo Sonata,” looks like a family melodrama — if a distinctly eccentric variant on the typical domestic affair — there is … The father, Ryuhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa), is a successful businessman who finds himself suddenly downsized as part of widespread company cutbacks. By Genevieve Yue in the March-April 2009 Issue. Perhaps he feels so inadequate he's threatened by any success involving his family. Is there a happy ending? But Koizumi is similarly effective, and the brooding child actor Kai is also top-notch. Now, with Tokyo Sonata, Kurosawa has moved from not-quite-horror to not-quite-satire. The film transcends conventions of genre and cultural boundaries, and turns out to be one of the most compelling, finely orchestrated and oddly enchanting films of the year so far. All of the performances have perfect pitch; the young son engages us in the same way as the hero of Truffaut's "The 400 Blows.". Notes Additional Physical Form: Also available on microfilm from the University of Florida. And then the film finds a form of release in another unexpected scene. James Morita. Plot 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. January 19, 2020. The high-definition transfer is presented in 1080p. But that's not what we're given by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, best known for upscale horror films. His expertise and quick service with a smile made a hole experience very pleasant. Copyright © Fandango. Rudy!!!! A film that effectively examines both the familial conflicts in Japan's transitioning society and the wondrous avenues each individual within the family explores. Review: Tokyo Sonata T okyo Sonata is yet another of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s chilling portraits of micro and macro alienation, a family drama as chillingly controlled and despondent as the horror films that gained him international recognition. Tokyo Sonata, in so many senses, is about an allergic reaction to the very idea of what it means to be Japanese. Given the current economic situation in America, the themes of Tokyo Sonata resonate even more. Why? Kagawa does the heavy dramatic lifting in Tokyo Sonata, convincingly portraying a good man flailing against reality. Kurosawa's relaxed pacing and lack of concern for explaining every last thing will be a welcome relief if you've wearied of blockbusters... Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa cut his teeth on horror movies, and his flattened, formal style mines the horror in everyday urban life. Old tapes have been destroyed. 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. 4 Min Read. Ed. No, it doesn't turn into another horror film or a murder-suicide. He comes home, hands over his week's wages, says nothing. At the end, they feel the same tensions as at the beginning, but the facade has been destroyed, and they will have to proceed unprotected. As such, the appeal of “Tokyo Sonata” should translate to audiences anywhere who can identify with the family’s dilemma – and many will. Kurosawa's first domestic drama is music to general audience's ears. The lesson has to do with kindness and human interaction. Direction and acting are workman like although Kurosawa has inserted numerous (sometimes subtitle) messages and philosophical points of view (both harrowing and humorous). It opens on a note of routine, of a family so locked into their lives that they scarcely know one another. It simply shows how lives torn apart by financial emergencies can be revealed as being damaged all along. His wife sees him there, knows everything, stays quiet. Panos Kotzathanasis panos.kotzathanasis pkotzathanasis PKotzathanasis. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. Best known in the United States for bizarre and unsettling horror films like PULSE and CURE, Kiyoshi Kurosawa ventures away from that category with TOKYO SONATA. The film centers around a seemingly normal Japanese family. Review: 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. I admit that when I received the DVD in the mail I thought the title was "Tokyo Santa" so maybe anything would have been We analyze millions of used cars daily. 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. DVD Review: TOKYO SONATA. Read, review and discuss the entire Tokyo sonata movie script by Kiyoshi Kurosawa on Scripts.com His humiliation is underlined when all maintenance workers must change into one-piece coveralls at lockers in full view of passing customers. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. [H]ere, perhaps more urgently than ever before, it's about what happens when people confront the world outside, and what new, fragile connections they might begin to forge. Storyline The wind of change is blowing as a family grapples with unemployment, alienation, mistrust and a lack of communication. We are blindsided by its beauty. Dramatic events occur that demonstrate how a routine, once broken, cannot easily be repaired. Etsuko Terasaki's review in Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese 33.2 (1989): 175-76. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. A sonata is a classical form in which two musical ideas are intercut. Noah Griffin’s review published on Letterboxd: Riffing on crippling conformity, dysfunctional family dynamics, and economic desperation, Tokyo Sonata is a film of a restrained, peculiar tone that varies from feeling like exaggerated satire to biting commentary. Many men in Japan do the same, no big deal, but hypocrisy is the point. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! The directions the films takes I should not reveal. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. Using utter realism, Kurosawa presents the hardships a family faces in the middle of the financial crisis, similar to the same bitter truth Sam Mendes showed in "American Beauty". He has an encounter at work that is bizarre. By Genevieve Yue in the March-April 2009 Issue. It is terrifying because it is about us. When a Japanese salaryman loses his job to outsourcing to China, it is just the beginning of a series of family shattering incidents leading to the implosion of the family unit. Yet it is without doubt the most terrifying film Kiyoshi Kurosawa has ever made. Tokyo: Yuseido, 1988: 236-50. Of course, Kurosawa is incapable of directing a straightforward picture, and TOKYO SONATA is no exception. Kiyoshi Kurosawa made his reputation with offbeat horror films like Cure and Pulse, which emphasized creeping dread over overt shock. He is an autocratic father, filled with anger. I was helped by Mr. Rudy Porter. There's a lesson in Tokyo Story. Japanese Reviews • Reviews Film Review: Tokyo Sonata (2008) by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. 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 characters misplace their belief in etiquette, politesse, dignity, and propriety - or they struggle to maintain it. Don't have an account? We are wrong. His father forbids him. As mentioned, it contains no supernatural elements, no ghosts, killers, or monstrous flora and fauna. There is a soup kitchen. for thematic elements and brief strong language, CW Reboots Walker but Forgets to Give Him a Personality, Something as Extraordinary as Birth Itself: Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber on Pieces of a Woman, 10 Upcoming Films That Could Shake Up Oscar Season, Leslie Odom Jr., Aldis Hodge, Eli Goree, and Kingsley Ben-Adir on the Brotherhood of One Night in Miami. Although I feel a slight dishonesty to Kurosawa's capabilities by even saying that as the man has proven even before this point his range as director with such superb films like Charisma and Bright Future Tokyo Sonata is such a beautiful movie. His older son, Takashi, and younger son, Kenji, are filled with unhappiness but seemingly well-disciplined, although Kenji gets in trouble at school: The teacher unfairly blames him for passing along a manga, or graphic novel, and Kenji defiantly says he saw the teacher reading a porno manga on the train. (The day when China and India begin outsourcing will be a historical turning point.) Panos Kotzathanasis. The sonata has two sets of stars: actors and Tokyo venues (the latter may be both familiar and novel for frequent visitors to and, perhaps, residents of the city). The "themes" in this movie are the father and his family. Tokyo Sonata reminded me a little of two French movies about salaryman-delusion: Laurent Cantet's Time Out (2001) and Nicole Garcia's The … Though far from flawless, it's an adventurous work that is both disturbing and ultimately moving. Citations: REELING IS A PROUD MEMBER OF… Laura and Robin's reviews are also featured on Rotten Tomatoes , the Movie Review Query Engine , and the IMDB . Taking a break from his regular diet of fantasy and horror, Japan's Kiyoshi Kurosawa delivers here a fierce indictment of modern-day Japan. Despite his reputation as a leading J-Horror auteur, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has tended to eschew the grisly thrills and spectral manifestations of his peers for a more diffuse atmosphere of mystery and dread. Most Memorable Performances, all Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to best by Tomatometer 's! Experience very pleasant has ever made the current economic situation in America, the themes of Tokyo (. 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