Tokyo Sonata

TokyoSonata_OneSheet.FIN (Page 1)

Time:

  • 5:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.
  • June 12, 2009

Where:

  • The Tower Theatre
  • 815 E. Olive Avenue

Synopsis

TOKYO SONATA is a portrait of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family. The father who abruptly loses his job conceals the truth from his family; the eldest son in college hardly returns home; the youngest son furtively takes piano lessons without telling his parents; and the mother, who knows deep down that her role is to keep the family together, cannot find the will to do so.

From the exterior, all is normal and the same. But somehow, a single, unforeseeable chasm has appeared within the family, threatening to disintegrate them. Director Kurosawa’s use of light and dark to express a sense of simultaneous hope and horror verges on awe-inspiring and the ending will leave you enthralled.

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Japan, 2009, 35mm
119 minutes, Rated PG-13
Japanese with English subtitles

Reviews

Tokyo Sonata takes on increasingly uncanny and timely resonance for an American audience.
Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Begins as a well-behaved story and takes detours into the comic, the macabre and the sublime. 3 1/2 stars.
Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
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.
Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER
Tokyo Sonata takes on increasingly uncanny and timely resonance for an American audience.
Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Begins as a well-behaved story and takes detours into the comic, the macabre and the sublime. 3 1/2 stars.
Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
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.
Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER

Every second Friday of the month Fresno Filmworks showcases first-run international and American independent feature films at The Tower Theatre.