If you loved Tokyo Sonata, try Penance
A bridge between a film you've already seen and one most people haven't. Penance has roughly 6.5× fewer votes than Tokyo Sonata — it's a deeper cut, not a mainstream recommendation. Here's what they share, and what the second one does that the first one doesn't.
What they share
Both films are directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and they both carry the bittersweet, dread, foreign gem, gut punch, outsider mood tags, and they sit in Drama territory. If that's the register that drew you to Tokyo Sonata, the second film will land in a comparable space — through a different lens.
What Penance is
Silence meets The Virgin Suicides when a murdered girl’s mother hexes the witnesses who forgot the killer. The four girls live under the curse they can’t escape. The mother’s grief carries the black magic of the piece.
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