Thanks to the script which invests the smallest scenes with dramatic significance, Tokyo Sonata enthrals audiences for the first hour with the pacing of a thriller.
Tokyo Sonata(トウキョウソナタ)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Japan, Netherlands, Hong Kong · 2008
Rated PG-13 · 2h 0m
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Kai Inowaki, Yū Koyanagi
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Ryûhei is hiding the fact that he’s recently lost his job due to outsourcing from his wife, Megumi, and his two teenage sons. He works tirelessly to find another position, but when Megumi accidentally finds out Ryûhei's secret and doesn't tell him, her trust in him, and their marriage, suffers.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Chicago Reader by Andrea Gronvall
Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa switches gears from supernatural horror to poignant social satire.
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
For all its oddities, this movie does carry weight, and, with more than eight per cent of Americans out of work, the timing of its release here could not be more acute.
Though there's nothing here that hasn’t been dealt with in other Japanese movies, picture benefits considerably from its pitch-perfect performances.
With Tokyo Sonata, Kurosawa shows that he has quite the flair for dry humor and peppers this film with just the perfect amount.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Tokyo Sonata, looks like a family melodrama -- if a distinctly eccentric variant on the typical domestic affair -- there is more than a touch of horror to its story of a salaryman whose downsizing sets off a series of cataclysmic events.
As always, Kurosawa masterfully controls his film's framing and sound design, and as always, the painstakingly precise mise-en-scene can feel a little overdone at times.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
A disconcerting melange, Tokyo Sonata begins rather conventionally before spinning into black comic, almost fantastical, terrain.
Although envisioned before the world economy went to hell, Tokyo Sonata is relevant to the mess we're in now.
Users who liked this film also liked
The Idiots
(Idioterne)
A commune of adults seek to eschew the propriety of bourgeois society by pretending to be disabled in public.
- ✭ ✭
- Denmark, Spain, Sweden • 1998
- Director Lars von Trier
- Cast Bodil Jørgensen, Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing, Troels Lyby, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Louise Mieritz
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on MUBI
Exiled
(放‧逐)
A former mobster attempting to live quietly with his family deals with two pairs of hitmen from his past.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Hong Kong • 2006
- Director Johnnie To
- Cast Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, Simon Yam, Nick Cheung, Richie Ren, Roy Cheung
- Genre Action, Crime, Thriller
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, FlixFling, Crackle, Tubi TV, VUDU Free, Freevee, DistroTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
Panda! Go Panda!
(パンダコパンダ)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 1972
- Director Isao Takahata
- Cast Kazuko Sugiyama, Kazuo Kumakura, Yoshiko Ohta, Yasuo Yamada
- Genre Animation, Family, Comedy
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube
Still Walking
(歩いても 歩いても)
Twelve years after their beloved eldest son, Junpei, drowned while saving a stranger's life, Kyohei and Toshiko welcome their surviving children home for a family reunion.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2008
- Director Hirokazu Kore-eda
- Cast Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Yui Natsukawa, Yoshio Harada, You, Kazuya Takahashi
- Genre Drama, Family
- Available on AMC+ Amazon Channel, IFC Films Unlimited Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube
Peppermint Candy
(박하사탕)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea, Japan • 2000
- Director Lee Chang-dong
- Cast Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri, Kim Yeo-jin, Suh Jung, Go Seo-hee, Kim In-kwon
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Café Lumière
(珈琲時光)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, Taiwan • 2004
- Director Hou Hsiao-hsien
- Cast Yo Hitoto, Tadanobu Asano, Masato Hagiwara, Kimiko Yo, Nenji Kobayashi, Yôko Hoshi
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Happiness
(Le Bonheur)
A young carpenter strikes up an affair with a postal worker despite his happy marriage.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1965
- Director Agnès Varda
- Cast Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Drouot, Olivier Drouot, Sandrine Drouot, Marie-France Boyer, Marcelle Faure-Bertin
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max
Empty Quarter: A Woman in Africa
(Une femme en Afrique)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1985
- Director Raymond Depardon
- Cast Françoise Prenant
- Genre Romance, Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Notebook
(A Nagy Füzet)
Towards the end of World War II, two young brothers learn to survive the atrocities of war.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Hungary, Germany, Austria • 2013
- Director János Szász
- Cast András Gyémánt, László Gyémánt, Molnár Piroska, Ulrich Thomsen, Ulrich Matthes, Orsolya Tóth
- Genre Drama, War
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand
Exhibition
An intimate examination of a contemporary artist couple
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2013
- Director Joanna Hogg
- Cast Viv Albertine, Liam Gillick, Tom Hiddleston, Harry Kershaw, Mary Roscoe, Carol McFadden
- Genre Drama
- Available on Metrograph, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, VUDU Free, Kanopy
The Dark Horse
Bravery is contagious.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- New Zealand • 2014
- Director James Napier Robertson
- Cast Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston, Kirk Torrance, Sia Trokenheim, Andrew Grainger
- Genre Drama
- Available on fuboTV, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, FlixFling, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Hoopla, Shout! Factory TV
Journey to the Shore
(岸辺の旅)
For 3 years, Mizuki’s husband was missing. One day, he suddenly returns and invites her on a trip with him.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, France • 2015
- Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Cast Eri Fukatsu, Tadanobu Asano, Masao Komatsu, Yu Aoi, Yasayuki Shuto, Akira Emoto
- Genre Drama, Fantasy, Romance
- Available on Kanopy
Blade of the Immortal
(無限の住人)
His path is paved in blood.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, United Kingdom, Korea • 2017
- Director Takashi Miike
- Cast Takuya Kimura, Hana Sugisaki, Sota Fukushi, Hayato Ichihara, Erika Toda, Ebizo Ichikawa
- Genre Action, Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Redbox, FlixFling, Crackle, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, DistroTV, Kanopy, Hoopla
Oh Lucy!
(オー・ルーシー!)
When her new English teacher disappears, lonely office lady Setsuko sets out on an international journey to find him.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan, United States • 2017
- Director Atsuko Hirayanagi
- Cast Shinobu Terajima, Josh Hartnett, Kaho Minami, Koji Yakusho, Shiori Kutsuna, Reiko Aylesworth
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Hoopla, Film Movement Plus, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand
So Long, My Son
(地久天长)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- China • 2019
- Director Wang Xiaoshuai
- Cast Wang Jingchun, Yong Mei, Qi Xi, Du Jiang, Ai Liya, Li Jingjing
- Genre Drama
- Available on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel
Los delincuentes
Morán schemes to steal money, confess, and serve prison time while his accomplice hides the cash. While Morán’s away, the accomplice gets distracted by a woman who changes everything.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Argentina, Brazil, Luxembourg • 2023
- Director Rodrigo Moreno
- Cast Esteban Bigliardi, Margarita Molfino, Sergio Hernández, Cecilia Rainero
- Genre Drama
- Available on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel, Apple TV, Vudu, Amazon Video