TOKYO SONATA

Japanese film director Kurosawa Kiyoshi, better known for mainstream horror films, returned to realist drama in TOKYO SONATA. Through depicting an ordinary family in Tokyo, the film makes astute observations on Japan’s post-bubble social phenomenon and topics including family crisis, the unravelling of patriarchy, and personal identities. Kurosawa, together with writing partners Max Mannix and Tanaka Sachiko, won Best Screenplay at the Asian Film Awards. In the film, the father loses his job while the wife continues to play the role of saintly mother and wife. The older son enlists in the U.S. Army for deployment to the Middle East and the younger son, entering puberty, goes to piano lessons instead of attending school. The film is down-to-earth in its approach of depicting the family’s interaction as they were estranged and alienated from each other. Though different in societal role and age, the family members are each stranded in their own dilemma. Amid their differences, the family reconnects through a poignant piano performance by the younger son.