Tokyo Sonata

Strange. Very strange.

That’s "Tokyo Sonata," opening here today, the latest effort from Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurasawa. The film begins with the firing of the man of the house, Ryokei (Teruyiki Kagewa), continues as he constructs an elaborate tissue of lies, dressing in coat and tie every morning, taking briefcase as he leaves the house, not telling his wife, Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi) of the situation, spending time looking for work, in a library, standing in line for free lunches.

At home, things are falling apart. The elder son, Takashi, played by Yu Koyanagi, is disaffected and listless, then decides to join the American army. The younger, Kenji, played by Kai Inowaki, finds a keyboard in the trash and suddenly (the magic of movies in every country) is of genius class, motivated to steal his lunch money to pay for lessons with a beautiful teacher (Haruka Igawa). Ryokei is against both these plans, but realizes that his deceit has destroyed his authority from the inside out, and the boys learn it, too.

All this is well-acted, and family problems are one of the basic food groups of movies. And then, almost as if we were in "The Dukes of Hazzard," we make a 90-degree turn as

Ryokei finds work cleaning bathrooms in a department store, Takashi is off with the Army, Kenji runs away – and patient, hard-working Megumi, who has learned of the deceit but still is trying to hold the family together, is kidnapped by a wild man brandishing a knife while burglarizing the family apartment. Suddenly, it becomes clear why, in a family that does not own a car, she is taking driving lessons. At the same time, Kurasawa takes us off in all directions at once and "Tokyo Sonata," though well-acted, becomes totally discordant.

At the Plaza Frontenac

-Joe