ShowBiz Forum - messages #23756 .1

Prospero Blocks

Hot Celebrity Searches

'Grey's Anatomy'

Patrick Dempsey

'American Idol'

Sarah Jessica Parker

More Hot Searches

Chat Center

	Hot Movies Topic: Hot Movies
	The Drive-In Topic: The Drive-In

Board Folders

	Ask the Experts 1376 msgs in 79 dscns Latest: 5/5/09
	Industry News/... 5651 msgs in -132 dscns Latest: Jan-29
	Weekly ShowBiz... 4497 msgs in -98 dscns Latest: Feb-1
	Celebrity News... 11053 msgs in 564 dscns Latest: 11:59 AM
	TV/Movie Celebs 1961 msgs in 168 dscns Latest: Oct-10
	Music/Other Ce... 1321 msgs in 87 dscns Latest: Jan-29
	You Decide: Ho... 1323 msgs in 110 dscns Latest: Jan-21
	Movie Talk 6183 msgs in -68 dscns Latest: Feb-4
	Harvey Karten'... 2152 msgs in 844 dscns Latest: Feb-6
	World of Enter... 814 msgs in 121 dscns Latest: 9/18/08
	Home Video/DVD 1358 msgs in 234 dscns Latest: Oct-20
	Screenwriting 220 msgs in 31 dscns Latest: 5/10/07
	Theater & Music 843 msgs in 242 dscns Latest: Feb-3
	The Green Room 9445 msgs in 567 dscns Latest: 6/2/09

Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Tokyo Sonata

Print Discussion

#1 of 1 Posted 3/5/09 11:00 PM

From harveykarten Posts 798 Last Feb-7
To All [Msg # 23756.1 ]

TOKYO SONATA

Regent Releasing
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: A-
Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Written By: Max Mannix, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Sachiko Tanaka
Cast: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Yu Koyangagi, Kai Inowaki, Haruka Igawa, Kanji Tsuda, Koji Yakusho
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 3/5/09
Opens: March 13, 2009

Save for its two-hour length, which the plot falls just short of sustaining, and a strange robbery scene near the conclusion that breaks up the tone of the film, “Tokyo Sonata” would go down as one of the truly great films about that ever-popular subject: family dysfunction. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, known in the West for the J-horror pic “Pulse” (Japanese university students investigate a series of suicides apparently brought about by contact with the Web); “Cure” (a series of murders marked by the letter X carved into the victims’ necks); and for “Charisma” (a detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic), travels a different road with “Tokyo Sonata.” There is no horror as the term is customarily defined, but the film uses drama, melodrama, comedy, farce, and music to make its points about one family—which stands in for Japan as a whole and, in fact, for the whole global shebang.

The story bears some common ground with the Yoshimitsu Morita’s send-up of the stereotypical Japanese unit in “The Family Game. ” The script for “Tokyo Sonata” by Max Mannix, Sachiko Tanaka and the director allows us to eavesdrop into the going-on within a Tokyo family headed by breadwinner Ryuhei Sasaki (Teruyuji Kagawa), his home-maker wife Megushi (Kyoko Koizumi), their sensitive sixth-grader, Kenji (Kai Inowaki) and adolescent college student Takashi (Yu Koyanagi). Everything is copacetic, the wife and kids waiting ever-dutifully at the dinner table for their dad’s arrival home from work as an administrator in a modern Tokyo office. But the bubble bursts when, after an office visit by two Chinese delegates with fluent Japanese who tell the big boss that jobs can be exported to their country at a much lower wage scale, Ryuhei is downsized. A land previously known for nearly ironclad security for workers is changing with the rest of the developed world, as globalization takes its toll on Japanese workers, a dilemma that we here in America are now facing with a vengeance.

Even the story on which the film is based is a product of globalization in that Max Mannix’s “Dance of the Dragon” is by an Australian! In the tale as in the movie, the dad, humiliated at the loss of his job as only someone from a Japanese culture can be humiliated with a capital H, tries to hide his unfortunate situation from his family. In one of the many examples of comic interludes, Ryuhei, planning to hide out in libraries and parks, runs into a former high-school classmate, Kurosu (Kanji Tsuda), who, though dressed in a bespoke suit and seemingly rattling orders into his cell phone, admits that he too is out of work and arranging for five automatic cell-phone rings daily to make him feel better and to hide his status from his own family.

While the Sasaki family’s college student shows increasing alienation ultimately leading to a strange decision involving the war in Iraq, young Kenji determines to take piano lessons, though he meets vigorous opposition from his dad, who believes the desire is merely a whim and one that is unaffordable. Kenji’s teacher, Kaneko (Haurka Igawa) is herself going through the trauma of a divorce while at the same time the lad’s sixth-grade instructor is identified as a reader of manga porn thereby losing losing his authority in the classroom. Lots of comedy here.

A weird switch in tone toward the conclusion involving a self-hating robber (Koji Yakusho—directed in a hamfisted way) who is driven through Tokyo streets by his strangely loyal hostage stops the film short, but the final scene, which involves the curative power of music on the family, is spot-on. And director Kurosawa respects us enough to treat us a recital of the entire title sonata, Claude Debussy’s “Clair du lune.” Hmmm: another example of globalization within Japan.

“Tokyo Sonata” works terrifically as both allegory and story that is absorbing in itself—a warning, perhaps, about the
danger of increased globalization on the one hand, a paean to the restorative powers of music, the most abstract art, on the other. You’ll have to accept the fact that young Kenji, played by the delightful actor Kai Inowaki as a kid who’d be welcomed by parents anywhere (except within his own family), can perform like a concert pianist after a few months of lessons and without an instrument at home on which to practice. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose film won the jury prize at Cannes and was performed at the New York Film Festival, states in an interview that he expects to use “Tokyo Sonata” as a point of departure for exploring why the 21st century is “muddled and confused” and “vastly different from the vision of the future we had in the previous century.” We wish him the best, given his ability to evoke crackerjack performances from his ensemble who have been blessed by re-enacting a great story.

Rated PG-13. 119 minutes. © 2009 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

Edited 3/5/09 by harveykarten

Print Discussion

Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Tokyo Sonata

Adjust text size:

Interest level:

Welcome, Guest

• Post a message

• New messages to you

Find messages


Advanced Search

Prospero Blocks

	Web Offers • Find: Astrology Chart
• Cosmetic Surgery
• Madonna's Music
• Kelly Clarkson
• Angelina Jolie
• Tom Cruise

Special Offers
Show me more info on:

Finding People

• Find a Date

• White Pages

• Reverse Lookup

• Cell Phone Numbers

• Unlisted Numbers

• E-mail Addresses

• Background Checks

• People Finder

• Fine Old Friends

• Family Tree

Cool Clicks!

• Unclaimed Cash

• Free Cell Phones

• Energy Boost

• Party Planning

• Photo Sharing

• Work From Home

• Video Games

• BloggingStocks

• Horoscope Updates

• Adult (18 & Over)

© 2009 CompuServe Interactive Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Legal Notices | Privacy Policy