Tokyo Sonata
Departing from the horror films that made his name, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa tells the story of an unemployed salaryman in this intricate family melodrama.
The film centres around a traditional Japanese family whose lives are defined by routine and custom. When the father, Ryuhei (Teruyuki Kagawa), loses his well-paid job at a medical equipment company to cheaper Chinese workers, his pride prevents him from admitting this to his wife and children. Instead, suited and booted with briefcase in hand, he makes a pretence of leaving for the office each day, whiling away his hours at the local library and queuing for free food at the soup kitchen. His demure wife, Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi), soon guesses at the truth but, so as not to undermine her husband’s authority in the household, pretends not to know.
Although his children are not aware of his redundancy, the longer Ryuhei lives a lie, the less respect they have for his authority. In a spirit of rebellion his elder son Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) signs up for the US Army, while his younger son Kenji (Inowaki Kai) uses his school lunch money to pay for piano lessons, after Ryuhei point blank refuses to pay for them himself.
In many ways, having a job is pretty similar to not having one: the morning and evening rituals of saying goodbye and hello, eating and sleeping remain the same, and by stretching out his redundancy pay, coupled with the pocket money he gets from doing menial jobs through a temping agency, Ryuhei gives the appearance of earning a wage. The fact that he can go on so long with this pretence shows just how shallow his relationship with his family actually is - based on an adherence to rigid social structures, rather than love and trust. It also shows what happens when someone builds their whole identity around their job. Take that job away and they’re left with nothing.
A series of bizarre events force the other family members to confront their rigid existence. Megumi spends an uncomfortable night with a crazed would-be robber (Koji Yakusho), while the piano-playing son tries to help a school friend flee his violent father. In spite of the calamities that beset each family member, the film ends on a muted, optimistic note as the shattered family reunite over a mellifluous performance of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”.
