Story: Six women attempt to make it in current day Tokyo, living their everyday lives the best and worst they can. For them, every little moment becomes a ritual of the ordinary and the exciting, a balancing act for their dreams and hopes as the days perpetually tug on their heartstrings.

 

Review:From a struggling artist who yearns for bigger breasts to a modern geisha who hopes to break it big as a writer, TOKYO.SORA is a somber story that explores the idiosyncrasies of the female condition in one of the most populated cities in the world. A contemporary story by first time writer/director, Hiroshi Ishikawa, that paints the lives of six women as they loosely become connected by circumstance and environment.

The film opens up with a woman washing her hands at the dawn of the morning. From there, each scene begins to bleed of the interiors and the exteriors of the metropolitan. Long shots of sitting in the park during the misty haze of the dusk or the roaring of the afternoon traffic as one sits in front of the television eating a bowl of hot ramen. Blue water calms as another one smokes in her porcelain tub contemplating how she will break her everyday routine of living. These are the motifs of TOKYO.SORA and its inhabitants. As small picture pieces, the film heavily relies on its mundane storytelling by showing the same scenes of daily life repeatedly as if they were strung together on a clothesline for everyone to see, showing that the simplest encounters can create connections and the smallest changes are capable of promoting new direction.

Ultimately, these reoccurring themes are the troubles in paradise for TOKYO.SORA. Even at its loveliest heights, it continues to present a somewhat disjointed and redundant plot. The “Yuki” storyline is the closest one from being fleshed out, and even then, it becomes unpolished as the character lacks a real dynamic. A lot of the motivations for the other characters also feel incomplete. Though, Ishikawa may be sincere to his characters by giving them the purest of portrayals, they are not multifaceted enough to be as fascinating as they could be.

While the humdrum existence for these women may not interest most, the score by Yoko Kanno will. Her delicate compositions provide elegance and passion in between the bittersweet landscapes, playfully adding to the hazy atmosphere of each conversation and arm resting daydream. Even the most lackluster scenes feel refreshing when her harmonies are heard. It is Kanno’s music that provides the rich textures the film inherently needs.

In the end, TOKYO.SORA is both very beautiful and monotonous, an emotional hybrid that does not mix too well. While each shot is placed to provide an effortless depiction of its female leads, they never weave together a complete tapestry to supply the emotional integrity desired to truly care. Perhaps that is the message of the director, to just present an honest to goodness portrait; a series of still life with a feminine soul. It may take a lot of patience and understanding to appreciate this artistic picture, but nonetheless, the music is well worth the viewing alone.