Family lies

Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa mixes
horror and melodrama in Tokyo Sonata

SHAME GAME: Teruyuki Kagawa

by MATTHEW HAYS

It’s a long-standing observation about Japan’s national culture that it’s a place consumed with obsessions over success, status and money. So ingrained is this idea that, if explored in yet another movie, it would almost certainly unravel in cliché.

That is, in the hands of many filmmakers. But luckily, Kiyoshi Kurosawa—an auteur mainly known for his horror movies (Pulse, Cure) and of no relation to Japanese demigod Akira—is no ordinary director, and he takes his latest film, Tokyo Sonata, into new and unexpected directions.

The bad news is triggered over the opening credits, as a middle class businessman and family man (Teruyuki Kagawa) is “right-sized” into corporate oblivion. Devastated but unable to articulate his reality, Kagawa begins a shame-soaked sham of a life, leaving for work every day and arriving home approximately eight and a half hours later, pretending he still has his job. (A buyout package means he’s still getting some income.) Kagawa lines up for free lunches every day, with a growing line of others who share his dilemma—his bond with another out-of-work businessman is especially poignant. These scenes reflect Japan’s growing economic fall from grace, one that started over a decade ago and which is now being replayed in the rest of the world’s economic downturn.

Some have expressed intrigue in Kurosawa’s shift in directorial gears, but of course, Tokyo Sonata really is a horror movie, though it initially sports the trappings of an Ozu-esque family melodrama. As the film rolls on, we learn that the patriarch isn’t the only one with something to hide; indeed, Kurosawa reveals the nuclear family unit and the roles ascribed each member to be suffocating nightmares. Kyoko Koizumi is an inspiration as the long-suffering wife and mother who copes in silence as things begin to fall apart. Their eldest son wishes to join the military so he can serve for the American forces in the Middle East, while their younger son must hide the fact that he’s taking piano lessons.

Towards its conclusion, Tokyo Sonata takes a strange but welcome foray into fantasy. It’s to Kurosawa’s credit that his unexpected concoction manages to hold together, despite pushing the boundaries of realism. It leaves you thankful that there are still directors taking such risks.

TOKYO SONATA OPENS THIS
FRIDAY, AUG. 7