Tokyo Godfathers (2004)
Written and directed by Satoshi Kon
90 mins.
Satoshi Kon has produced two of the best feature length anime works of the last ten years with Perfect Blue and last year’s excellent Millennium Actress. Toyko Godfathers is the latest from Kon and his excellent team of animators.
The story follows three homeless people, a middle aged man who lost his family due to drinking and gambling, a young teen who ran away from home and a homosexual cross-dresser. On Christmas Eve the three find a baby left in a dumpster, which brings up different feelings for each. After deciding to not take the child to the police they trek to find the parents, in a way to try and understand why they did this to their child.
There are many layers to the story all of which involve the past family trouble of the three lead characters. And all most every issue and layer is dealt with before the film ends. However, it seemed as though things fell into place almost too well. Family members from the past would show up one after another, at just the right time. It got to the point where the story became predictable, one area where, Perfect Blue especially, was not. Too much of the plot was solved in a simple, impossible fashion. This happens all the time in anime, but Kon’s work are different from standard anime fare, in that they are more like live action films that just happen to be done with animation. Godfathers felt a little too much like a standard anime.
That being said the character design, color and animation are all top notch. One thing Kon is excellent at is creating a beautiful world to place his characters within. The characters are very unique and very funny. It was the situations that took me out of the story. The film was just too “nice.” Maybe I would have reacted better if it were closer to Christmas.
All in all, this is a good rental if you like well made anime features. I am happy to see that so many of Kon’s works are getting released in the U.S. theatrically. Anime is far more than just for kids and the U.S. studios finally are seeing that. Kon is a great filmmaker, and while I did not find this to be one of his better works, it’s still worth checking out.
Grade: B-
Written by Dave Bohnert
copyright 2004.