Every family has its secrets...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 take 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 title of the movie speaks for itself. This movie is really a "sonata".
The film talks about big issues like globalization, the economic crisis and more personal issues like identity loss and family problems.
All the above coupled with Japan and its unique culture, this film is really true madness.
In bad times like now, being retrenched is no longer a big thing in Singapore.
You get retrenched, you try to find a job.
I don't think anyone will try to hide it and there's really no way to hide since Singapore is so small.
In the movie, the father character was retrenched and for his self-esteem and his so called "respect" as a father and husband, he kept it the secret from his family.
Even after he found a new job as a cleaner in a shopping mall, he still leaves home early in the morning dressed in suit and tie and changes into his cleaner outfit when he is at the mall. Being such a patriarchal society, it's totally believable that this is a true reflect of Japan .
And back at home, he had to deal with two sons.
The older son is having a big identity crisis and wants to fight for the US Army.
In the movie, they made it such that the US is allowing non-citizens to join their Army through a volunteer recruitment. Looking at how organizations like cheap labour now, it seems possible that this might really happen in time to come.
The younger son is simpler, he just wants to play the piano.
But for some unknown reason, the father refuses to let him play the piano and the poor boy had to resort to using his lunch money to pay for the piano lessons.
And finally, there's the long suffering wife who tries her best to play the role of a good mother. She is a responsible housewife with no complaints but nobody appreciates her efforts.
The "sonata" happens on a single day and the father, the mother and younger son each experienced an unusual day and things started to take a change and the movie ends. What an amazing sonata...