Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
Tokyo Sonata @ The Sydney Film Festival
June 22nd 2008 22:57
"Tokyo Sonata" left me feeling drained, like my inner organs were exposed to the relentless vacuum of deep space. One of the festival organizers, seeing me leave, asked how the film was, and I responded with a heavy heart. She sympathized, having recommended several of her friends to go see it on its opening night, only to watch them leave the cinema, teary and bleak.
Perhaps the film hits its mark because nearly everyone in the audience can sympathize with the story of a Japanese family, where every member of the family leads a hidden, secretive life - though they meet every day for dinner, that meal is silently guarded, and no one really knows anyone else.
I wouldn't say that my childhood experience mimicks this exactly, but I can understand the feeling of alienation and misunderstanding. The role of parent-child, while fitting when the kids are young, soon starts to seem irrelevant, especially when you suggest that many adults are still struggling with their own insecurities and fears.
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, known for his J-horror films, gives it to us in "Tokyo Sonata", a seemingly sleepy examination of a family, tragically locked in the trappings of modern life. The father is an administrative manager who loses his job, but is too ashamed to tell his family, so he gets up everyday and dresses in his fine suit, looking for work and standing in the free food line in the park. The mother exists only as a housewife and has willingly obliterated her own recognitions of herself as a person outside of the family.
The film is genuinely funny to begin with, almost like the tenuous plot of a prime-time sitcom: middle management husband hides unemployment from family! All it needs is a laugh track and a catchphrase, and we're golden. Fortunately, Kurosawa is adept at avoiding the obvious comedy stylings and leads us down a dark, forbidding road. The film meanders into horror - not of the supernatural type - but reminds us that we're all so tragically close to falling into our own Sonata.
I left the screening feeling wretched, as if someone had pulled the cord on my morphine drip, but strangely entranced. "Tokyo Sonata", filmed in gloriously grainy film, with the grim neighborhoods of urban Japan indistinguishable from any other, reminds us that we're all part of the current. As the husband goes to work, there's a constant flow of others like him. When he loses his job, there's an unending line of businessmen like him, waiting for new jobs. How can your story be tragic if it's mirrored by hundreds like you?
And this is the terror... not in the tragedy of the story, which is bleak and hopeless, a family going through the motions of being connected, but, rather, that there are so many families like this, perhaps yours, perhaps mine. Kurosawa's playful comedy turns into a nightmarish horror film, one that hits the heart like no other. From Midnight Eye:
"...it contains no supernatural elements, no ghosts, killers or monstrous flora and fauna. Yet it is without doubt the most terrifying film Kiyoshi Kurosawa has ever made. It is terrifying because it is about us. You, me, our neighbours, our colleagues, the people we cross in the street. All it takes for the horror to emerge is for people to realise the madness of the world they contributed to creating."
"Tokyo Sonata" was entered into the Sydney Film Festival competition and, though it didn't win, I've heard numerous accounts of the impact of the film. This is incisive, penetrative material and Kurosawa's grainy footage, reminiscent of a 70s drama, makes the film appear like something out of our collective memory. Is it the fear of failure that makes "Tokyo Sonata" resonate with audiences, or is it, bizarrely, the fear of the fear of failure?
I say: One of the finest films shown at the festival, a scathing remark on how we've let ourselves drift into anonymity and alienation.
See it for: You'd easily mistake this for a comedy, at the start, as the film seems almost slapstick in its execution.
*this image is from Twitch film
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Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
This is such an excellent review, it's brilliant.
It reminds me of how I've felt after seeing some Ken Loach films such as Raining Stones or Ladybird, Ladybird or Stephen Knight’s Dirty, Pretty Things. I’ve left feeling wretched, drained and exhausted, but you know it was worthwhile with an important message. The films that show families with issues that are relatable stand out to me. They take the risk of not glamorising life, highlighting those things that can escalate and escalate.
Most definitely a film for me to see.
Tracy
Comment by Cibbuano
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Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I have my eye on London to Brighton but it was all out at my local shop. I remember you saying that one is good and on a non-related tangent, I've had quite a few journeys from London to Brighton and other related areas so it seems even more interesting.
Yes, Raining Stones is a good start to Ken...
Comment by Nathan 1
Comment by Cibbuano
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Nathan, I'd like to see more of Kurosawa's work, now... I'll look for Noriko's Dinner Table.
You'll like this, I bet... haunting, really.