Review of Tokyo Sonata (2008) by Andrew T — 19 Feb 2009

â??What do you do all day?â?? We all at some point question what we are living for, especially when change is forced upon us. With his company gradually outsourcing more of its work out to China, Ryu finds himself redundant, with few skills to help him find new work with ease.

Embarrassed by his new status, the typical salaryman Ryu conceals this from his wife and 2 sons. Spending his days queuing at job agencies and eating handouts, he soon discovers that he is not the only one of Japanâ??s middlemen to end up in this situation.

But he is not the only member of his family with a secret. All 4 family members conceal their daily lives from each other, with a detrimental affect on both their familyâ??s and their own lives. All are left asking themselves the same question.

Tokyo Sonata see a change of pace for director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, leaving his usual horror flicks for a deconstruction of Japanese family life. And he succeeds. An all-round well put together piece finishes with an ending that is as simple as it is moving, and shows us all what we should be living forâ?¦.