One of our favorite films of the year, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s (no relation to Akira) “Tokyo Sonata” will open in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, March 13, 2009 followed by a national roll out. We saw the bewitching and strange family drama at the New York Film festival and were thrilled and blown away by how it masterfully weaved disparate tenors of absurdist comedy, drama and psychological horror so effortlessly.
Kurosawa is known for his J-horror films like, “Cure,” “Pulse,” and “Doppelganger,” but in recent years the filmmaker has been moving closer to a more subtler dramatic, psychological horror (“Charisma” “Bright Future,” which aren’t even “horror” per se); the pitch of which seems to have been perfected on ‘Sonata.’
Those wondering if the Japanese director will go back to his horror days (some of which has been aped and remade by American filmmakers looking to mine richer stories), will be disappointed. Kurosawa told Spoutblog earlier this year that he won’t be going back to that pure genre. “I doubt I will go back to horror. If I have a good idea I will go back to it, but probably not in my next film. But neither am I interested in another family drama. This film was something quite unexpected.”
Frankly, we don’t mind as its his latter work which we find strongest. Do go out of your way to see ‘Sonata’ when it hits theaters next year, it’s a unique film and we haven’t seen anything like it in quite some time (you can read our full review here).