Tokyo Sonata (2008)
When the credits rolled my first thought was that this film is like a reverse Perfect Days or conceptually a prequel. It is a sombre introspective dive into work as identity, especially working culture in Japan. We see this man loses his job and he desperately tries to keep up appearances, because so much of his self-understanding is tied up in his work. The irony is that he hardly knows what he does or what his skills are. He sees a job as how he protects his family, which comes in direct conflict with his oldest son who has very different ideas on what it means to support and protect a family.
While I think Japanese working culture has pretty big differences with Western work culture, I still think this would resonate with most people with how our perception of life is skewed and distorted by our jobs.
Rating: 4