The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Review: Tokyo Sonata

An unexpectedly moving J-horror film
By BRETT MICHEL  |  May 6, 2009
3.0 3.0 Stars


VIDEO: The trailer for Tokyo Sonata

Spinning off from the same departure point as Laurent Cantet's 2001 film Time Out, J-horror maestro Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) begins his timely, if atypical, tale with the downsizing of Japanese patriarch Ryuhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa) from his administrative post. Ryuhei can't accept unemployment, and he never tells his family.

Donning suit and tie every morning, he sets off for "the office" — which in reality is a succession of lines: an unemployment line, a line at a soup kitchen. But unlike Cantet's picture, this story belongs to an entire family, and Ryuhei's not alone with his secrets.

Eldest son Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) wants to enlist in the US military; sibling Kenji (the talented Kai Inowaki) spends his school lunch money on piano lessons; their mother, Megumi (Kyôko Koizumi), is quietly and all-too-willingly taken hostage in a mood-shifting third act that signals yes, this is a J-horror Kurosawa film, an unexpectedly moving one.

Related: Review: Drag Me To Hell, Review: Chéri, Review: Departures, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , U.S. Armed Forces, Movie Reviews, Kiyoshi Kurosawa,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: RED CLIFF  |  November 25, 2009
    Hong Kong auteur John Woo hit commercial and artistic pay dirt in the US with Face/Off , his loopy Nicolas Cage/John Travolta neo-noir, but once he’d directed Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible II , was there anywhere left to go?
  •   INTERVIEW: GABOUREY SIDIBE  |  November 18, 2009
    "While reading the book, I realized that I knew this girl in so many different people. Not just girls but boys, and not just black people but white and Asian and Indian."
  •   REVIEW: MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT  |  November 12, 2009
    The Star Wars –style titles that begin Kenny Ortega’s hastily assembled Michael Jackson tribute documentary explain that the film has been whittled down from 100 hours of behind-the-scenes video shot between last April and June during rehearsals for the King of Pop’s planned 50-date “This Is It” London concert series.
  •   INTERVIEW: LONE SCHERFIG  |  November 16, 2009
    Born in Denmark in 1959, Lone Scherfig first gained international attention in 2000 with Italian for Beginners, a charming little film that won her the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. A couple of years later, she followed up with Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, her first English-language effort, filmed in Scotland and starring Adrian Rawlins and Shirley Henderson.
  •   REVIEW: THE BOONDOCK SAINTS II: ALL SAINTS DAY  |  November 02, 2009
    You’d think Troy Duffy would have learned something in the decade since he blew his golden ticket with The Boondock Saints .

 See all articles by: BRETT MICHEL

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group