Product: Tokyo Sonata (2008)
Rating: 4.0
The Effects of Sudden Job Loss On A Japanese Family
This movie is an examination of what happens to a family in Japan when the only breadwinner, a salaried man, loses his longstanding job. It could be the story of millions of families finding themselves in similar situations today in any country. It's mainly about how the parents in the family handle the increasing breakdown in the family's relationships after the husband suffers the sudden and unexpected job loss. You can see the husband lose face as he has to stand in long lines at the job search office, suffer through humiliating job interviews from hell, for which he seems totally unprepared, and as he eats his lunch from a free food line. He bonds with an old classmate in the exact same situation but this eventually has a bad outcome too and the husband seems to lose hope even more after this. He is a proud man who cannot bring himself to tell his wife about the job loss although she eventually discovers it on her own but she remains silent too. A total lack of communication and support for one another is obvious and makes you wonder how close the husband and wife's relationship was before the job loss occurred. How the parents and two children eventually reconciles all that they go through is what ultimately shows that there is some strength within this family bond though. I must admit I was somewhat disappointed in the ending as it left too many questions up in the air and seemed unfulfilling but maybe that's how continuing job loss really is just a lot of unanswerable questions with no real final solution in sight. I give it 4 stars for being one of the only movies I have seen that tries to tackle the huge issue of family dynamics after a job loss takes place. The acting was good and the plot, although a bit slow, still held my interest as most of us can relate to job loss or the fear thereof in today's job downsizing world.