Kiyoshi Kurosawa is best known for his horror movies. But he also makes black comedies, and this is one of them.
Coming on like a reworking of Laurence Cantet’s Time Out, Tokyo Sonata traces the dark descent of a salaryman (Teruyuki Kagawa) who’s sacked but can’t bring himself to tell his family.
Where Cantet concentrated on the fired man, Kurosawa looks at the effect on his wife and son. At times the multiple plotting threatens to pull it apart.
But if the ending feels like a cop-out, the satire on Japanese obsessions hits home.
Philip Kemp
