Tokyo Sonata

(Japan/Hong Kong/The Netherlands | 2008 | 119 mins | 35mm)

35mm

San Francisco Premiere

Exec. Producers: Yasushi Kotani, Michael J. Werner
Producers: Yukie Kito, Wouter Barendrecht
Writers: Max Mannix, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Sachiko Tanaka
Cinematographer: Akiko Ashizawa
Editor: Koichi Takahashi
Sound: Masayuki Iwakura
Music: Kazumasa Hashimoto
Cast: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Inowaki Kai, Koji Yakusho

Winner of the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's latest film finds the filmmaker departing from the supernatural terrain of his recent string of horror films to present a piercing, devastating family drama. Like Yasujiro Ozu and Mikio Naruse, whose influences are evident in both style and theme, Kurosawa examines a modern Japanese family against the backdrop of a changing world, in this case a crumbling social fabric and an uncertain geopolitical landscape.

Downsized from his company when his job is outsourced to China, Ryuhei Sasaki can't bring himself to reveal his shameful fate to his family. He leaves home each day pretending to go to work before joining an ever-growing throng of suited former salarymen in line at the employment agency and food-handout stations. Meanwhile, his elder son—who is rarely home—decides to join the U.S. military, and his younger son takes piano lessons in secret against his father's disapproval. Ryuhei's wife attempts to keep the family from unraveling amidst the discord, but a series of events accelerate their path to their inevitable, destructive destination.

Though the darkly comic and deeply unsettling tone recalls that of Kurosawa's previous works, the sharply observed crevices in the seemingly ordinary family are in a sense more chilling than any of his dread-inspiring ghosts. Yet the sublime, memorable final scene offers a glimpse at the possibility of renewal, making TOKYO SONATA arguably his most hopeful film to date.

In Person: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

-- Taro Goto

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