Tokyo Sonata
Regent Releasing | Release Date: March 13, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleReyhan Harmanci
Kurosawa's film is heavyweight fare: disturbing, slightly over the top, but satisfying, like a rich meal with a powerful aftertaste. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jennie Punter
Turns out to be one of the most compelling, finely orchestrated and oddly enchanting films of the year so far. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
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 full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A work of tremendous passion, daring and delicacy. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Bold, acutely observant and universal in its wide-ranging concerns and implications. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
No, it doesn't turn into another horror film or a murder-suicide. It simply shows how lives torn apart by financial emergencies can be revealed as being damaged all along. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
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, even when the later passages go a little nuts. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
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 full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
As always, Kurosawa masterfully controls his film's framing and sound design, and as always, the painstakingly precise mise-en-scene can feel a little overdone at times. Read full review
80
Film ThreatEric Campos
With Tokyo Sonata, Kurosawa shows that he has quite the flair for dry humor and peppers this film with just the perfect amount. Read full review
80
Village VoiceScott Foundas
Kurosawa's abiding concern has always been the alienation of modern living, which he here merely transplants into a more recognizable domestic milieu, where subtle fissures in society's apparent order threaten to short-circuit people instead of their beloved technology. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Tokyo Sonata, looks like a family melodrama -- if a distinctly eccentric variant on the typical domestic affair -- there is more than a touch of horror to its story of a salaryman whose downsizing sets off a series of cataclysmic events. Read full review
80
Washington PostPhilip Kennicott
At its best, Tokyo Sonata is a deft interweaving of seemingly dissonant ideas -- war and music, family and politics, authority and freedom. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Although envisioned before the world economy went to hell, Tokyo Sonata is relevant to the mess we're in now. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
A disconcerting melange, Tokyo Sonata begins rather conventionally before spinning into black comic, almost fantastical, terrain. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
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 full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa switches gears from supernatural horror to poignant social satire. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMaggie Lee
Thanks to the script which invests the smallest scenes with dramatic significance, Tokyo Sonata enthrals audiences for the first hour with the pacing of a thriller. Read full review
70
VarietyDerek Elley
Though there's nothing here that hasn’t been dealt with in other Japanese movies, picture benefits considerably from its pitch-perfect performances. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
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 full review
67
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Only in the slightly overlong last act, as the family's misfortunes become truly existential, does director Kiyoshi Kurosawa take things to another level. Whether this is an extension of the film's social criticism, a comment on the absurdity of melodrama or straightforward audience manipulation, is anyone's guess. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is better known for horror films; this is a movie where the horror is internalized, and hideously truthful. Read full review
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