Tôkyô sonata 2008

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Though Tokyo Sonata looks like a family melodrama, there is more than a touch of horror to its story of a downsized salaryman. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: Kiyoshi Kurosawa switches gears from supernatural horror to poignant social satire. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: A goofy and remarkably topical comedy-drama. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to the master) is best known for his up-market horror films (Cure, Retribution, and many others.) Here he is dealing with a horror of a different sort: the meltdown of the Japanese economy and the collapse of the soc Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: So much about the movie is laced with real wit and compassion. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Tokyo Sonata, in so many senses, is about an allergic reaction to the very idea of what it means to be Japanese. The characters misplace their belief in etiquette, politesse, dignity, and propriety -- or they struggle to maintain it. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Each performance in this plaintive work is superb, but Kyoko Koizumi's gently melancholy portrait of the businessman's wife keeps Tokyo Sonata true and affecting. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: A disconcerting melange, Tokyo Sonata begins rather conventionally before spinning into black comic, almost fantastical, terrain. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Known for distinctive horror movies like Cure and Pulse, inventive Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa finds just the right melancholy tone to suit a new and all too familiar kind of horror: economic downsizing. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: The elements sound borrowed from American suburban melodrama, but the tone is cool and measured, with the distanced fascination of a nature show. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: So strong a director is Kurosawa that he not only can get away with piling on disasters but makes his picture all the more powerful as a result. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: 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. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's a painfully pertinent subject (although the best work on this is still Laurent Cantet's 2001 Time Out). Yet Kurosawa, while working in domestic drama, gives this his own quirky sensibility. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Although few families are likely to suffer the extreme fate of this one, the well-acted, sensitively told Tokyo Sonata hits home in this time of financial crisis. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Tokyo Sonata speaks to us, with feeling and passion, as one of the most eloquent statements on the world today that we are likely to see in this moviegoing year. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: An extraordinary work in three movements about the Sasakis, a seemingly ordinary family. In this unpredictable work, the clan implodes, explodes, and glues itself back together. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: We believe we know where Tokyo Sonata is going. We are wrong. Read more

Reyhan Harmanci, San Francisco Chronicle: Tokyo Sonata is a bit overwrought, especially in the final act, but it is beautifully shot, features moving performances by the well-chosen cast and has the unity of vision that is the hallmark of an auteur. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A realistic social drama, but the story taps deep, cold wellsprings of dread. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa cut his teeth on horror movies, and his flattened, formal style mines the horror in everyday urban life. Read more

Mark Peranson, Globe and Mail: Though far from flawless, it's an adventurous work that is both disturbing and ultimately moving. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: The film transcends conventions of genre and cultural boundaries, and turns out to be one of the most compelling, finely orchestrated and oddly enchanting films of the year so far. Read more

Jason Anderson, Toronto Star: A skilful and continually surprising drama, Tokyo Sonata depicts the gradual deterioration of an ordinary Japanese family after its breadwinner loses his job owing to corporate downsizing. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: An extremely impressive and intricate family drama from Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: The movie slides into a kind of bizarre hyperreality that makes its desperation slightly hallucinatory but, paradoxically, more moving. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: A quizzical dramedy by Kiyoshi Kurosawa that puts some fresh juice into the waning step of the onetime J-horror specialist. Read more

Philip Kennicott, Washington Post: Kurosawa is the rare director who simply lets his film dissolve into music, allowing the plot to take the film naturally to a musical conclusion. Read more