Tokyo Sonata
| Tokyo Sonata | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Kiyoshi Kurosawa |
| Written by | Kiyoshi Kurosawa Max Mannix Sachiko Tanaka |
| Starring |
Teruyuki Kagawa Kyōko Koizumi Yū Koyanagi Kai Inowaki Kanji Tsuda Kōji Yakusho |
| Music by | Kazumasa Hashimoto |
| Cinematography | Akiko Ashizawa |
| Edited by | Koichi Takahashi |
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Release date
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Running time
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120 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | $2,500,000 |
| Box office | $940,430 |
Tokyo Sonata (トウキョウソナタ Tōkyō Sonata?) is a 2008 film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It won the award for Best Film at the 3rd Asian Film Awards and received 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards nominations for Achievement in Directing and Best Screenplay. At the 2008 Cannes Film Festival it won the Jury Prize of the Un Certain Regard section.
Tokyo Sonata is about a middle-class family in Tokyo, the Sasakis, which consists of Ryūhei Sasaki, his wife Megumi, and their two sons Takashi and Kenji.
Ryūhei has a good office job, but is suddenly fired because Chinese workers are cheaper. While attempting to find a new job, Ryūhei encounters an old classmate on the street, Kurosu, who has also recently been downsized. Kurosu uses a feature on his mobile phone that plays the ring tone periodically, so that it may fool others into believing he is still employed. This intrigues Ryūhei, who decides to hide the fact that he has been fired from his family. While the two men hopelessly try to find new work, Kurosu's wife slowly begins to suspect her husband's unemployment. Kurosu is later found dead together with his wife from gas poisoning in a double suicide, thought to be initiated by Kurosu.
Takashi, the oldest son, joins the US military and is deployed to war in the Middle East. Kenji, the younger son, wishes to learn to play the piano, even though his father refuses to allow him piano lessons. Kenji takes lessons secretly, and pays for them using his lunch money. Gradually, Kenji develops a strong relationship with his piano teacher, Miss Kaneko, who urges him to pursue his musical ambitions. When his parents find out about Kenji's secret piano lessons, Megumi, who is generally closer to the children, is supportive, but Ryūhei is so furious that he attacks his son, accidentally causing him a minor concussion.
One day, Megumi, while alone at home, is taken hostage by an unemployed man who broke in looking for money. The robber forces Megumi to drive a car he has stolen previously. After a long drive, he allows her leave the car to use the restroom where she has the opportunity to escape. However, she encounters her husband at the mall working in his secret job as a janitor and decides to return to her captor saying that she cannot return home.
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