![]() Kenji, for his part, rebels by signing up for the piano lessons his father has forbidden him to take. (This couldn't actually happen, but it's a provocative notion in Japan, where the American military presence is widely resented.) ![]() Tired of handing out fliers for a modest living, Takashi decides to join the U.S. When he finally gets a cleaning-crew job, Ryuhei is not the only worker who changes from his orange jumpsuit to a business suit before heading home. Ryuhei meets other men in his situation, including a former schoolmate who's set his cell phone to ring five times an hour so he can pretend to be taking important business calls. Increasingly, unemployed salarymen join the line.Īlthough Tokyo Sonata remains focused on one family, it illustrates a larger phenomenon. More often, he just sits in the scruffy park where homeless men line up for a free rice-porridge lunch. Some days he goes to an employment agency or to a humiliating job interview. That knowledge dawns so slowly because Ryuhei gets up every morning, puts on a suit and leaves home. But his authority comes from his breadwinner role, so the status quo crumbles as Megumi and the boys gradually realize that dad has lost his job. Megumi and Ryuhei are married, and the story toggles between them, with occasional forays into the lives of their sons, teenager Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) and 6th-grader Kenji (Inowaki Kai).Ī fireplug of a man, Ryuhei is the absolute power in the house. That era begins immediately, as mid-level executive Ryuhei (Teruyuki Kagawa) is laid off. Then the scene changes to an office, where a Japanese-fluent Chinese woman portends a new era of outsourcing. This deft, bracingly unpredictable movie opens in a tidy Tokyo apartment, which housewife Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi) scurries to protect from a cloudburst. There's more horror in his new Tokyo Sonata, but it's an everyday sort: The slashing is of payrolls, not arteries. What happens when an exceptionally orderly society breaks down? Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has proposed various answers to that question, mostly in movies that get filed under "horror." I don't wanna hear no sad songs / I just wanna have some fun tonight / Dancing all the way 'til last call / Drink in my hand got me feeling right / It's been a long week / A gone wrong week / So keep that good time spinning on repeat, yeah / I don't wanna hear no sad songs / I don't wanna hear no sad songs.Ĭome on, play that "Wagon Wheel" / Turn up that "Sweet Home Alabama", give me all of the feels / Don't forget the "Chicken Fried" / I want it served it up with a little "Sweet Caroline", so / Play something we can sing to / Play something we can raise hell and a drink to / Don't get me going just to go and slow it down / Pour up another round.Megumi Sasaki (Kyoko Koizumi) is torn between a desire to honor her husband and protect her sons. I don't wanna hear no sad songs / All right, yeah / I'm out here cuttin' it loose / You'd think its huntin' season by the way I'm killin' the goose / Yeah, it's got me feeling the groove / Two-steppin' with my baby, breakin' in these Lucchese boots, so / Play something we can sing to / Play something we can raise hell and a drink to / Don't get me going just to go and slow it down / Pour up another round.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |