Setting aside the existentialist terror and trans-genre experimentation that characterize most of his films, in Tokyo Sonata Kurosawa portrays a sober drama. Filmed with his usual elegance, the movie continues exploring certain aspects of the national identity, the state of the soul and the generational conflicts in contemporary Japan. The Sasaki family (a housewife, a young son who wants to be a pianist and an older son recruited by the U.S. army) slowly starts to fall apart when the father is unjustly fired from his executive post in a corporation. He decides to hide this from his family and continues with his daily routine as though nothing had changed: every morning he puts on his suit, takes his briefcase and kills time in public places, lobbies or horrible employment agencies. Instead of focusing only on the private story of the main character, Tokyo Sonata multiplies his anguish, his shame, and his anger transformed into domestic violence, showing that there are many others who, like him, have discovered too late that their life choices and ideals have led them to a dead end.