It stars Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyōko Koizumi, Yū Koyanagi and Kai Inowaki as an emotionally distant middle-class family of four who all individually come to question their life choices and futures.

Driven by a desire to make the world a better place, Takashi leaves Japan to join the United States military, to Ryūhei's anger and Megumi's sadness.

Kenji, who feels guilt for mistakenly causing his class to disrespect their teacher, wishes to learn to play the piano, but after his father's stern refusal, starts taking lessons in secret, paying with his lunch money and practicing on a broken keyboard he found in garbage.

Megumi resigns to the robber's sexual advances, although he is ultimately unable to go through with the act, and she attempts to console him; however, when she spots a light on the horizon over the sea, the burglar despairs because he cannot see it.

The final scene depicts Kenji playing Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune" flawlessly at an audition; moved to tears by his performance, his parents accompany him out as the mesmerized crowd watches them.

[4] Christopher Bourne of Meniscus Magazine said, "Kurosawa's latest film, Tokyo Sonata, is his best in quite a few years, a truly frightening work that achieves its effects without resorting to tired genre mechanics."