| Plot Synopsis Japanese filmmaker Satoshi Kon directs his third anime feature with the holiday film Tokyo Godfathers. The story takes place in Shinjuku, Tokyo, on Christmas Eve. Middle-aged has-been Gin, aging transvestite Hana, and teenage runaway Miyuki are three homeless friends who have formed a kind of makeshift family structure. Their bond is tested when they find an abandoned baby while searching for food in a garbage dump. They have no choice but to care for the infant themselves. The group travels throughout the city, searching for the baby's parents and coping with their personal reactions to the situation. Tokyo Godfathers premiered at the Big Apple Anime Fest in 2003. - Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide Reviews ANDREA LEVASSEUR All Movie Guide Strangely, Tokyo Godfathers leans heavily toward melodrama despite its macho title and John Ford Western influences. The constant plot overlaps and unlikely coincidences are more reminiscent of a Pedro Almod�var comedy, especially since one of the main characters is a maternally obsessed drag queen who frequently bursts into tears. The rapid sequence of events keeps the story engaging, if implausible, with a constant stream of chase scenes and daring rescues. So the film scores well as a family-oriented adventure. The snowy Tokyo landscapes are meticulously rendered to show all the dirty alleyways and garbage dumps that the protagonists call home. However much trash there is, the city doesn't feel that threatening with all of the bawling and exposition going on. The film functions best as a lighthearted romp through an urban playground, something perfectly visualized with the dancing skyline images during the closing credits. It suffers during the weepy, overly emotional bits, but those may be unavoidable due to genre conventions. Detached science fiction this isn't. In contrast to the sad and visceral beauty of the misfit family on Cowboy Bebop, Tokyo Godfathers presents a similar family of misfits who go on a much more warm and sentimental journey. ETHAN ALTER NYC Film Critic Satoshi Kon has only three feature films to his name, but for me he's already one of Japan's best anime directors, second only to Hayao Miyazaki. Ever since I saw Kon's first film, the brilliant Perfect Blue, I knew he was one to watch. Sure enough, his sophomore effort, Millenium Actress proved equally fascinating. Now here comes his third feature, Tokyo Godfathers, which tells the story of three homeless individuals--a drunk, a transvestite and a teenage girl--who stumble upon an abandoned baby and decide to track down its parents. Along the way, they get mixed up in a gang war, reunite with long-lost family members and bicker amongst themselves. Not the sort of anime feature you're used to hearing about, huh? That's one of the things I like most about Kon; he doesn't limit himself to just one genre. Each of his films features a completely different style and mood. Perfect Blue was a Lynchian thriller, while Millenium Actress was a melodrama that constantly played with the viewer's perception of reality. Tokyo Godfathers is best described as a dramedy--the film mixes genuinely dramatic scenes with exaggerated comic bits. Although the same story could have been made as a live-action film (and indeed it was--Tokyo Godfathers is based on the 1948 John Wayne western 3 Godfathers), working in animation gives Kon certain freedoms. For one thing, he's able to make the city a real character in the film (in fact, the closing credits feature various skyscrapers dancing to a Japanese version of a popular Christmas carol). He's also free to exaggerate the character's facial expressions and body language in ways that can make us laugh or tug on our heartstrings without taking us out of the movie. Since "reality" in animation is always mutable, we can accept an animated character saying and doing things a live-action character would never get away with. That said, Tokyo Godfathers is not quite as cohesive as Kon's previous films. It's a little too whimsical at times and not all of the attempts to deepen the drama pay off (the transvestite character in particular is oddly handled). Part of the problem may be the translation, which is mediocre at best. With Kon's previous two films you could overlook the poor translation because the story was primarily told visually. But Tokyo Godfathers is more dialogue-based and the subtitles barely communicate the essence of what is being said. Even if this film is a bit of a letdown compared to Kon's other work, I'm looking forward to seeing what he's got up his sleeve next time. As long as he continues to push the conventional boundaries of anime and animation in general, he's got a fan in me. |
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| TOKYO GODFATHERS 2003 - Japan - 92 min. - Animated, Color Director - Satoshi Kon |
| Genre / Type - Comedy, Drama, Anime, Family Drama, Slice of Life Flags - Not For Children, Sexual Situations, Adult Language, Mild Violence MPAA Rating - PG13 Keywords - abandon baby, guardian, homeless parent Themes - Eccentric Families, Down on Their Luck, Parenthood Tones - Heartwarming, Compassionate, Sentimental, Bittersweet, Irreverent Produced by - Mad House Ltd. / Samuel Goldwyn / Tokyo Godfathers Committee Release - Jan 16, 2004 (USA - Limited) Premiere - 2003 09 30 (Big Apple Anime Fest) Released by - Destination Films MPAA Reasons - for thematic elements, violent images, language DVD Street Date - Apr 13, 2004 Languages - JAPANESE Subtitles - English French Spanish POR Studio - Columbia TriStar Cast Toru Emori -- Gin [Voice] Yoshiaki Umegaki -- Hana [Voice] Aya Okamoto -- Miyuki [Voice] Kyoko Terase -- Sachiko [Voice] Mamiko Noto -- Kiyoko/Gin's Daughter [Voice] Atsuko Ito -- Akiko Takeguchi Chiyako Shibahara -- Eriko Kawasaki [Voice] Kazuaki Ito -- Akiko Takeguchi [Voice] Atsuko Yuya -- Nobuyuki Furuta Mitsuhiro Ogata -- Hidenari Ugaki [Voice] Masato Harada -- Youto Kazama Shozo Izuka -- Oota [Voice] Seizo Kato -- Mother [Voice] |
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