Economic hard times have surfaced in places like Japan, where one just could not imagine these extraordinary times the world is experiencing, would be also affecting them. No country appears to be immune to what the financial crisis has done to millions that have seen their jobs evaporate.

This is the story of Ryuhei Sasaki, a proud middle management employee, one of the casualties of downsizing, when his company lets him go after many years of having been with the firm. The life he enjoyed, comes tumbling down. In Ryuhei's case, he decides to keep on pretending nothing has happened. By not telling about his new status, pretending he is still working, Ryuhei creates a problem for himself and his family who has no clue he is unemployed with no prospects of getting a job.

There are problems in the Sasaki's household. His wife, Megumi, is a no nonsense woman. She has stayed home to take care of a husband and two sons. Takashi, the oldest boy, wants to join the US armed forces in a program that offers citizenship to all that volunteer. Kenji, the youngest son, begins having problems in school because of his rebellious nature. Kenji would like to learn to play the piano, against his father's wishes. He even goes to spend his lunch money on lessons at a musical academy where a beautiful woman, Kaneko, discovers a talent in Kenji's abilities to play the instrument.

Ryuhei is seen going out in the mornings as though nothing had happened. We see him getting frustrated by what jobs are available, paying much less than he was making. On his search, Ryuhei discovers the soup kitchens that seem to have sprouted everywhere in Tokyo. Megumi sees him one day while eating, but does not tell him. Pressed to accept a cleaning job at a mall, husband and wife will have a bizarre meeting at his work place, something Ryuhei cannot hide from her.

"Tokyo Sonata" is a lyrical poem about the hard times experienced by a man that never thought he would be out of a job. Directed by Kyyoshi Kurosawa, a man who has been involved in the horror genre, this film surprises by the complexity which Mr. Kurosawa and his writing partners, Max Mannix and Sachiko Tanaka created. It kept reminding us of the neo-realism period because of the atmosphere of doom and helplessness it presents. It also evokes another film by Laurent Cantent's "Le emploi du temps" which also deals with the unemployment issue.

Teruyuki Kawaga plays Ryuhei with conviction. This man loses his dignity when he is not able to provide for a family that up to this point depended on him. Not only does he let down his wife, but he cannot face the uncertain future. Kyoko Koizumi plays Megumi, the woman that has sacrificed everything to keep a home for years without complaining because the happiness of the others is essential.

Akiko Ashiwawa's cinematography gets the atmosphere Mr. Kurosawa wanted and shows a different Tokyo, one in which the circumstances have changed for the Sasakis. Good musical score by Kasumasa Hashimoto.

When I saw "Tokyo Sonata" I thought it was going to be a comedy. The plot sure sounds like a comedy--though it certainly is NOT. In fact, it's a super-depressing film--one that only gets worse and worse as you watch. In fact, it's so depressing that you might want to think twice about seeing it--particularly if you are out of work or middle-aged.

Mr. Sasaki is a mid-level manager. However, like what has happened so often here in the US also, his Japanese company has decided to move production to China and lay off their domestic employees. Oddly, however, he does not tell his family and continues behaving as if he's going to work each day. I really thought this was intended to be a dark comedy, but as his unemployment continued, things only got worse for him and his family. Slowly, his family began to unravel--as if each was re-inventing themselves--and not necessarily always for the better. In the process, one of Mr. Sasaki's friends kills himself and his wife, Sasaki is run over and injured, their oldest son joins the US military (I didn't know you could do that!),the wife has a brief tryst with a man who abducts her and the youngest becomes an almost instant musical prodigy (too instantly to be realistic, actually).

As I said above, none of this really is funny and is in many ways reminiscent of the film "American Pie". Mid-life crises abound in this one and they all seek new direction in life. I appreciated all this but prefer "American Pie" because it had a certain dark humor--whereas with the Sasaki family, it was mostly dark and miserable until near the end--when things improved a bit. Well made, thought-provoking and unpleasant.

By the way, I did have a few questions about what I saw in the film and I'd love to hear more about this if you can help. First, how common in Japan are unemployed men in business suits filling the parks or folks pretending they are not unemployed? The film made both seem rather common. Second, didn't the fathers seem awfully abusive in the film? Is this common or acceptable? I was rather shocked by this. Third, is it possible for ANYONE (a prodigy or not) to learn the piano THIS expertly after only about 7 months worth of lessons? Just wondering....

I was expecting this tale of Japanese family life after an office worker loses his job to be fairly bleak throughout, however I found it to contain several moments that were laugh out loud funny which prevented the film getting depressing. A major theme of the film is the fragility of authority shown in an early scene when the family son destroys his teachers authority when he is being reprimanded for passing a comic between classmates and retorts that he saw the teacher reading a pornographic manga on the train the day before. It is fear of losing his authority in the home that leads Ryûhei to hide his unemployment from his family.

When salaryman Ryûhei Sasaki finds that his job has been outsourced to China he can't bring himself to tell his family so each day he goes out as usual but instead of going to work he goes to a job centre where he is offered low level jobs which are nowhere near his level of expertise and to a city centre soup kitchen where he meets an old school friend who is in a similar situation but seems to be coping better at first but in reality he is just better at hiding his troubles. Back at home he struggles to hide his secret which means refusing to let his younger son take piano lessons, leading to the boy using his lunch money to pay for the classes. As the film progressed I thought it may end in tragedy but each time things looked bad something would happen to bring a lightness back to the proceedings, one particular episode that stands out is the hilarious section where his wife Megumi finds herself being kidnapped by an incompetent burglar.

Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa did a great job keeping the film on on the fine line between tragedy and comedy, he is assisted by a good cast who all made their characters believable. I was surprised by the almost total lack of background music but found that worked well.