(Tokyo Sonata opens today at the Landmark Edina Cinema)
The family that broods together stays together...
The family that broods together stays together...If, like me, you didn't understand the big fuss about American Beauty ten years ago, consider taking a look-see at Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata, winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes in 2008. A meditative drama with spontaneous moments of comedy and a flair for the bizarre, it's one of those rare movies to hit theaters right at the moment in time when its message is most relevant.
Ryûhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa) is the patriarch of a moody Japanese family that's falling apart at the seams and languishing in unrealized dreams. When Ryûhei loses his administrative job due to downsizing, the family's issues are amplified to a breaking point, but ironically, it's not through self-destruction that this family copes with anxiety, but self-improvement. Young Kenji rebels against his father and begins secretively taking piano lessons, teenage Takashi volunteers to join Japanese troops in Iraq, and restless mother Megumi looks to escape by purchasing a new car. She can no longer trust Ryûhei to take care of the family, and their already distant relationship is nearly severed completely.
Are families throughout the world currently suffering the same fate as the Sasakis during this global recession? There's no way of really knowing what's being discussed at your neighbor's dinner table, but yes, most likely Tokyo Sonata has painted an earnestly realized portrait of industrialized family life in 2009. Moreover, it offers a stirring portrayal of contemporary Japanese culture, and unlike American Beauty, it does so without winking at the audience. The closest Tokyo Sonata comes to a staged "performance" is its brilliant final scene (which I will only link to here but almost definitely feature in my 2009 Best Scene breakdown).
But the topical urgency exhibited by Tokyo Sonata doesn't necessarily make it a great film. There are some odd changes in tone and toward the end I became worried it was going to go off the rails completely. That last scene really pulled everything together beautifully, however, and despite its flaws Tokyo Sonata is a pensive parable that I appreciated for its affecting insights into Japanese family life.
I am completely on the same page with here Dan, and I commend you on a terrific 300 word treatment. It's most relevant to today's society as you astutely pose:
ReplyDelete"Are families throughout the world currently suffering the same fate as the Sasakis during this global recession? There's no way of really knowing what's being discussed at your neighbor's dinner table, but yes, most likely Tokyo Sonata has painted an earnestly realized portrait of industrialized family life in 2009."
The final coda with the exhilarating performance of Debussey's "Clair de Lune" is an indelible capper.
Thanks for that, Sam. Reading it over again it sounds like a bit of a stretch to say that people are dealing with things to the level that the family is in TS, but in principle I still think it's pretty relevant.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, that song - two years in a row now I've been floored by a classical piece (Gymnopédie in MoW).
I loved this movie but still haven't come up with a satisfactory reason why.
ReplyDeleteFor the longest time I was seriously thinking it wasn't going to work and then it all just clicked in that final scene.
Could call on the MoW reference too. I had the same response to both pieces.
Sublime.
Yeah I remember we shared that confused-but-thrilled reaction after I mentioned it in the Watercooler a few weeks back (come to think of it, it's kind of how I felt about Jellyfish last year). It's a bizarre kind of movie that ends up being "saved" by the last scene, but then you think more about it and it was actually really solid for the first half.
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