Review of Tokyo Sonata (2008) by Nicki M — 30 Jul 2009

This is a very good movie, which unfortunately does not translate to being enjoyable. It follows the lives of a family - a father who has been made redundant, and is too proud to tell his wife, so leaves the house every day pretending to work, and eventually accepting a menial job as a cleaner secretly. The wife, who is actually onto him, having seen him queuing for food with the unemployed one day, but not wishing to admit she knows so he loses face. Their two children, one of whom signs up with the American army to get away from them all, and a little boy who is stealing his lunch money to pay for the piano lessons his parents would not let him take.

This movie is painfully slow, and though beautifully done, is not an experience I would like to sit through again. Maybe it is a Japanese culture thing, because I pretty much felt like slapping the lot of them and screaming "Be honest!!". Thankfully, there is some hope for this family at the end!