Tokyo Sonata
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Tokyo Sonata is a 2008 film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Plot
The film is about a Japanese family, consisting of a man, Ryûhei Sasaki, his wife Megumi, and their sons Takashi and Kenji.
Ryûhei has a good job, but is suddenly fired because Chinese workers are cheaper. He does not tell anything to his family. He meets another man in the same position. That man uses a feature of his mobile phone that provides the ring tone every twelve minutes, in order to pretend being called. The man is later found dead together with his wife. It is suspected to be murder followed by suicide. Megumi discovers her husband's unemployment but does not confront him. Later Yû secretly takes a job as cleaner.
Kenji exposes his teacher in front of the class as someone who reads pornographic material; after this the students do not respect their teacher anymore and classes get chaotic, after which Kenji regrets what he has done. After his father refuses to allow him piano lessons, Kenji takes the lessons secretly, and pays them with his lunch money. When Ryûhei finds out he gets very angry, and in a fight Kenji falls from the stairs.
Takashi joins the US army, and, unexpectedly, has to fight in the Middle East.
Megumi is taken hostage by a man and forced to drive a car he has stolen. She is allowed to leave the car to buy something in a shop, where she encounters her husband, working in his secret job. He panics and runs away. Megumi, although having the opportunity to flee from her hostage taker, returns to the man. They feel sympathy for each other and make love.
Later Kenji resumes his piano lessons, now with permission from his parents, and quickly learns, being very talented. Ryûhei continues with his cleaning job, now in the open.
