Tokyo Sonata Shows the Struggle After Being Fired From a Job

A. Tokyo Sonata follows a middle-class family in Tokyo, Japan and shows the struggle that Ryuhei Sasaki, the protagonist, husband, and father of the film, comes across after being fired from his job. He, like many others, was let go due to his business finding cheaper employees in the Chinese population in Tokyo. While searching for a new job, Ryuhei comes across an old friend he’s known since they went to school together named Kurosu. They start conversating and Ryuhei finds out that his old classmate had also recently gotten fired however, he has been hiding the fact from his own family by keeping a ringtone on his phone that lets people think that he’s receiving business calls.

This idea appeals to Ryuhei and he decides he’s going to hide his unemployment from his own family until he’s reemployed. Kurosu and his wife eventually die from gas poisoning in what was suspected to be a double-suicide. Ryuhei also seems to be having familial problems when he finds out that his younger son, Kenji, is secretly taking piano lessons after his father told him not to.

He ends up beating Kenji, accidentally giving him a minor concussion. One day, while Megumi, Ryuhei’s wife, is home alone, she is surprised by an invader, who has also lost his job and is looking for money, and is kidnapped. The man forces Megumi to drive a stolen car and after what seemed like an endless drive, she is given the opportunity to exit the car to use the restroom.

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At this point, she has the ability to finally escape but has second thoughts when she notices her husband working as a janitor at a mall. She ends up returning to the invader, telling him that she does not wish to return home.

Megumi decides to stay with the criminal until the next day, where she finally chooses to return home. While Ryuhei is cleaning the bathrooms at the mall, he finds an envelope with money and decides to keep it for himself, however when he encounters his wife while leaving the bathroom, he decides that he has no other choice but to flee the scene. After what seemed like an odd vision of his, Ryuhei leaves the envelope in a lost-and-found and returns home. A few months go by and Ryuhei is finally supportive of his youngest son’s piano talent as he, alongside his wife, is shown in the attendance of Kenji’s audition. This film depicts the transition of a hard-working and strict father to a desperate yet family-oriented man. If Ryuhei had never made that transition, his situation may have been similar to his old classmates, who didn’t have the support he needed. Luckily for Ryuhei, he had a family that loved and supported him amid his poor judgement to tell them the truth. He finally learns to support his family the same way they helped him.