Tokyo Sonata

I only knew of Kiyoshi Kurosawa as a horror director with such titles as Kairo and Cure so it was a bit of a surprise to read that this was a family-centred drama. Released in 2008 before the credit crunch was widely known, Tokyo Sonata begins when Ryûhei Sasaki is let go as head of administration as his company is outsourcing to China. Too proud to tell his wife, he dresses for work each day and joins the lengthy queues at the job centres and soup kitchens.
 
Sasaki's eldest son, Takashi, is dead set on joining the US military and his youngest, Kenji, wants to learn to play the piano. As they know the answer from their father would be a resounding 'no', Takashi asks his mother to sign his papers and Kenji uses his lunch money to pay for lessons, practising at home on a broken keyboard that he found in a street.
 

As Ryûhei finishes off his rice porridge, he sees an old school friend and, whilst they are talking, he takes a call from a client. Ryûhei sees through the charade and his friend confesses that he is also unemployed and has been for 3 months but goes through the same pretence of leaving home early, dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase. He however has taken it one step further by programming his phone to ring 5 times an hour just in case he's with someone and can pretend to be in a meeting with a senior vice president or has been asked to do some extra work. Whilst Ryûhei and Kenji have their secrets, something will happen to his wife that will force her to have a new perspective on things.
 
Kurosawa set and filmed this in Tokyo but it is almost universal as unemployment rises and people resort to desperate measures.
 
The cast is only small but Kurosawa knew what he was doing as every member of the ensemble is excellent. Teruyuki Kagawa is a terrific screen presence, with his barely-concealed desperation, sadness and shame as Ryûhei struggles to keep it together and begins lashing out at his family.
 

Tokyo Sonata is a heartbreaking and wonderfully observed drama that almost anticipated the worldwide recession, so audiences now can relate to Ryûhei's plight, due to the film's topicality. Though the idea of a man pretending to be something he's not isn't new - F.W. Murnau used it in Der letzte Mann in 1924 - Kurosawa applies it to great effect here and you really feel for Ryûhei.

The Disc

 
Extra Features
There are several featurettes involving the cast answering questions, but the main item is the hour long Making Of documentary. This comprises interviews, b-roll and rehearsal footage to make a fascinating and revealing piece which is worth watching more than once.
 
The set comes with a comprehensive booklet that is a great read, really helping you in your understanding and appreciation of the film.
 

The Picture
Kiyoshi Kurosawa has shown a great visual flair in the past, but this is probably his finest work with great attention to detail, using the Tokyo landscape superbly and sparing camera moves - much of the film is shot  with the camera 'locked off' and cutting from one shot to another. The costumes, production design and set decoration add to the effect with very impressive work.
 
*The pictures contained in this review are for illustrative purposes only and do not reflect the image quality of the disc.*
 
The Sound
There are three stereo options: DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Stereo and the latter is certainly the clearer when it comes to dialogue, but the score isn't presented as well as with the HD options. I found the TrueHD to be the weakest of the three with slightly muddy sound, so go with either the DTS or plain old Stereo.
 
Though the scored music is used sparingly, it is effective in enhancing the emotions.
 

Final Thoughts
I thought if Kiyoshi Kurosawa would ever be recognised as a Master of Cinema it would be with one of his horror films, but he has expressed a desire to try different genres and, if this is anything to go by, he should have absolutely no problems.
 
Tokyo Sonata is a moving and topical film with tremendous performances and direction; an absolutely first-rate film.