You know, much has been made about how Tokyo Sonata is something of a departure for brilliant Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa but you know what? If it gets the man a theatrical release on these shores - which it has, his first since Cure I believe - then I'm all for it. And different or not it's still all Kurosawa and all brilliant.
TOKYO SONATA is a portrait of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family. The father who abruptly loses his job conceals the truth from his family; the eldest son in college hardly returns home; the youngest son furtively takes piano lessons without telling his parents; and the mother, who knows deep down that her role is to keep the family together, cannot find the will to do so. From the exterior, all is normal and the same. But somehow, a single, unforeseeable chasm has appeared within the family, only to spread ever so quietly and quickly to disintegrate them.
The film releases on March 13th and the US trailer arrived today. Check the trailer out below the break. Oh, and that poster to the left? Brand new and premiering here at Twitch. Hit the link below for a larger version.
The text effects make it look like it's for a John Woo film.
I don't think this movie will be like anything John Woo has ever made. It's more like the opposite of John Woo.
So is this an appropiate trailer? I haven't seen the film yet, but I've read so much comparing this to early Ozu and knowing Kurosawa's other work, particularly Bright Future, I imagine this is an incredibly quiet, slowly paced, minimalistic film.
I understand it's called Tokyo Sonata, so a sonata is played on the trailer. But still, the editing of the trailer makes this feel far more melodramatic and quirky. It feels like a misleading attempt to make this film seem more accessible for a western audience.
Still, I'm totally pysched, although, I'm prepared to expect something completely different from what this trailer promises.
Don't like the poster that much..It doesn't really capture the tone of the movie... It is like it is a poster for a comedy .. And I don't think that many people will capture that the table in the poster is not a table but a piano if you didn't know anything about the movie..
Yep, been looking forward to this one for a long time - not sure it'll see a cinematic release in my own neck of the woods, but fingers crossed all the same.
There appears to be both a DVD and Blu Ray release planned by all accounts; someone posted the images that you'll find on the tail end of the links below in another forum.
I've no idea where these images originated from to begin with though, as The 'Masters Of Cinema'/'Eureka' website itself has no official word or mention of either type of disc, as far as I can see at least, so I assume the release may be some time off in the future yet?
It's good to see that such an important DVD release for Kurosawa, commercially speaking at least, is in the hands of one of the more top-tier distributor's.
DVD:
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/47/dvdwm0ku0.gif
Blu Ray
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/5370/bluraydg7kh7.gif
Not so much in America, sadly. Regent Releasing's films tend to get...what's the word..oh yeah: DUMPED. Unless of course you consider the Quad to be where it's at.
Agreed that it is a terrible poster. It's almost inpossible to make a trailer for this film because of its complexity and how the tone and plot shift several times over the course of.
And yea, the last scene is pretty fuckin' magical.
It's sad that they have to make the poster look as if the film were a comedy in order to draw viewers. Just sad...
Shit, can't believe i missed it at FNC in montreal.