TOKYO SONATA — CANNES 2008

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Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes last year, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata" is a lyrical family drama about a father emerging from a fog of denial after losing his administrative job when his department is outsourced to China.

Teruyuki Kagawa is brilliant as Ryuhei Sasaki, who along with many other unemployed businessmen, pretends to go work everyday in order to retain some semblance of dignity.

At home Teruyuki's wife Megumi (well played my Kyoko Koizumi) takes care of the house and their youngest son Kenji secretly re-purposes his school lunch money to pay for private piano lessons because his father refuses to allow him to study the instrument.

It's in this atmosphere of deception that an average Japanese family discover a new sense of fundamental human values.

"Tokyo Sonata" is an engaging family drama that brings out the universality of modern existence through a prism of Japanese life. 

(Regent Releasing) Rated PG-13 119 mins.