At a moment’s notice, Mr Sasaki is dismissed from his job of administrative director. Still clad in his suit, he wanders the streets of Tokyo and hides the shame of his joblessness from his family. His eldest son, Takashi, wants to enlist in the US army and go to Iraq. Kenji, the youngest, is secretly using his school lunch money to pay for piano lessons. Amidst all this, Megumi, the mother, is gradually losing her bearings in a family that is free-falling into the indifferent void of the Japanese capital.
With Tokyo Sonata,the maestro Kiyoshi Kurosawa has given us what certainly remains one of his finest films, in which he revisits various aspects of his work. He draws each of his characters carefully and delicately, exploring in depth the individual’s solitude and sentimental tribulations.
M.M.
