Tôkyô sonata (2008)

Director:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writers:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (screenplay)
Max Mannix (writer)

Release Date:

27 September 2008 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Every family has its secrets. [USA release]

Plot:

An ordinary Japanese family slowly disintegrates after its patriarch loses his job at a prominent company. |

Plot Keywords:

Japanese Family | Hit By Car | Japanese Food | Place Name In Title | Cleaning Toilet

Awards:

9 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Teruyuki Kagawa	...	Ryûhei Sasaki
Kyôko Koizumi	...	Megumi Sasaki
Yû Koyanagi	...	Takashi Sasaki
Inowaki Kai	...	Kenji Sasaki
Haruka Igawa	...	Kaneko-san
Kanji Tsuda	...	Kurosu
Kazuya Kojima	...	Kobayashi-san
Kôji Yakusho	...	Dorobô
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jason Gray	...	Amerika no ashigaru

Also Known As:

Tokyo Sonata (International: English title) (USA) (festival title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief strong language.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

Japan | Netherlands | Hong Kong

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Argentina:13 | USA:PG-13 | South Korea:12 | Singapore:PG | Hong Kong:IIB | UK:12

Company:

Django Film

Soundtrack:

Claire de Lune

I highly recommend this film.

At first I thought this film would be a depressing story to watch, but I was surprised that the film was actually very uplifting. Although it's a sad story overall, it has a very powerful message if you watch it to the end, a message that will encourage you to move on even when life gets to its darkest moment.

This story is about problems of people in Tokyo, all sorts of problems. The leader of the family lose their job and was afraid to tell his family, the elder son join American army and go to war, the younger son wants to learn the piano but the father forbids him, the wife is depressed of trying to hold the family together. The film is so delicate and beautiful. It captures the feeling of each character and the whole depressive atmosphere of Tokyo very well. The pace is slow but it's not boring because you can follow the story very easily and you can sympathize with each one of the characters. It doesn't even have any Hollywood boring formula of sentimental film. This is a real work of art.

I'm not gonna spoil this movie. I just want to tell you to go watch this film and watch it to the end although you feel that it's getting darker and darker. For me, this is not another good movie. This is a "great" movie because after I watch it, I feel that now I can go on with my life.