Hey folks, Harry here with Capone's look at Satoshi Kon's TOKYO GODFATHERS. Personally, I love MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, and am anxious to get a look at this, his personal adaptation of John Ford's 3 GODFATHERS with John Wayne into a very different set story, but with a lot of the same character arc work going on. Kon is a huge fan of John Ford's film, as is just about anyone who has ever been lucky enough to see it, and I hereby nominate it to the top of the... WHERE THE HELL IS THE DVD list. Here's Capone....
Hey, Harry. Capone in Chicago here with a confession that despite my place in history as one of the crowned princes of geekdom, my knowledge and appreciate of Japanese animation is extremely limited. It’s just one of the areas of filmdom I never quite tapped into. I see everything that opens in theatres, but with a few exceptions (Miyazaki chief among them) I haven’t dug through the vaults of anime to truly emerge myself in it. Almost by accident (and without really meaning to), I HAVE seen all three of the feature films by Satoshi Kon. PERFECT BLUE I saw in the late 1990s at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. I found the visuals to be breathtaking, but the story about a pop music princess uninspired and silly. Last year, I hesitantly stepped into a theatre to catch Kon’s second film, MILLENNIUM ACTRESS. Ah, now we’re getting somewhere, and it may have marked the first time I’d seen a Japanese animated film without a sci-fi, horror, or sex plot. This flashback-driven story of an elderly retired actress remembering her life through an interview with a dedicated reporter/fan was a beautifully realized melodrama.
But with TOKYO GODFATHERS, Kon has outdone himself tackling not only far more grown-up topic but doing so with stunning animation and a haunting score by Keiichi Suzuki (UZUMAKI and the upcoming Takeshi Kitano film ZATOICHI). GODFATHERS examines the lives of three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo during the normally festive Christmas season. Gin is an alcoholic who lies even to his friends about how he got where he is; Hana is a drag queen who succumbs to fits of crying or violent rage with little provocation; and Miyuki is a teenage runaway, whose reasons for leaving are clouded in mystery. While rummaging through piles of garbage, the three come across an abandoned baby. After much debate about whether to turn the baby into the police or take care it themselves, Hana’s maternal instincts kick in and the three keep the child, naming it Kiyoko, with the hope of finding out who its parents are with only a few clues found in the trash. The film takes us into the darkest back alleys of Tokyo to the swankiest social clubs in the search for these seemingly neglectful parents. As that mystery unfolds so do the secrets about the lives of our three homeless heroes, as each of them is forced to deal with the painful details of their pasts. Along their journey, they encounter the same prejudices that real homeless people face. They are mocked, beaten, ignored, and generally looked down upon. Kon’s visuals are spectacular, as the snow-covered city adds a lovely touch to the proceedings. These three characters are wonderfully realized, living, breathing people to me, and I was rooting for them the entire time.
Even with my limited knowledge of anime, I know that TOKYO GODFATHERS is something special, embracing the urban realities while refusing to give up the magical possibilities that the animated form offers. Kiyoko becomes something of a good luck charm to the three, and the sometimes treacherous adventures on which they embark through the city are as lovely as they are scary. This film was an eye-opener for me, I’ll admit. If this is what Japanese animation directors are capable of, I’ll start paying more attention starting now. The film opens in Chicago at the Landmark Century Center Theatre on January 16.
Capone
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