Tokyo Sonata does indeed capture the pain and desperation of a family pushed to the brink by the father’s unexpected unemployment. But in assessing the relationships of the family members it is clear that they were already plagued by disconnections so intense that the firing simply exacerbated an already miserable dynamic. The father was a selfish and clueless man who treated his wife and two sons with emotional and physical abuse; the wife was sinking into depression due to her unhappy marriage, while allowing her husband to physically harm their younger son; the older son, rather than being belligerent, was desperate to leave the unhappy household; and the younger son expected — and received — little understanding or empathy from his father. Yes, the acting is wonderful; yes, it is amazing that Kurosawa, the master of horror, so excellently mastered a very different genre, and yes, global capitalism has and will continue to harm families and individuals. But to lay all the blame on the father’s firing is amiss: this family was on a downward spiral well before the pink slip arrived.
source: Janelle Rossignol
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-exaktoh
by exaktoh
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