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Title: Tokyo Godfathers
UK Distributor: Columbia Tristar
BBFC Certificate: 12
Suggested Retail Price (SRP): £14.99
Running Time: 88 minutes (approx.)
Audio Options: Japanese 5.1 & Spanish 5.1
Subtitles: English, Arabic, Croatian,
Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish,
Turkish
Reviewer: Shay Marx (guest)
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Even homeless hobos are entitled to a Christmas!
Tokyo Godfathers follows the path set by Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress,
fantastical “what if” events firmly seated in reality. (A polar opposite to the
majority of Studio Ghibli films.) Three unexpected heroes find an abandoned baby
in a trash pile while scavenging for Christmas presents. Homeless themselves,
the decision is made to save the baby from a fate similar to their own.
Hilariously funny throughout Tokyo Godfathers is full of witty dialogue
offensive put downs and visual comedy. The three godfathers Gin, the reluctant
father figure, Miyuki, the teenage runaway and Hana, a transvestite whose dream
of being a mother may of came true on the discovery of the baby who they name
Kiyoko. As the film progresses the characters are forced to part ways and the
reason for their living circumstance is revealed.
The characters are forced to reveal themselves to the audience through either
conversation to minor characters or dream sequences familiar in both style and
setting to sequences in Perfect Blue. It becomes apparent that the
characters didn’t just decide one morning to become homeless, but were forced by
circumstance and their own emotional state of mind following events that
realistically could happen to anyone.
Tokyo Godfathers pulls no punches with its display of human life. Sexual
comments and actions violently used against each of the characters one shot
shows Gin violently grab Miyuki’s breasts while decreeing she had no tits. Other
sequences show ageist attacks, yakuza hits suicide and idleness.
When thinking of the films politics one question comes to mind, why does Hana
send Miyuki out to buy water, which was to be used to boil the babies milk, when
tap water was available?
Tokyo Godfathers looks amazing. Madhouse has surpassed themselves this time. The
Tokyo streets are almost photo realistic in colour, while interiors have a more
familiar animie pallet. Many of the characters (not just the main ones) have
been given vast amounts of animation and detail with backgrounds and lights that
really bring Tokyo to life. Once again Kon has came up with a fresh approach to
adding titles, as the protagonists make their way to there “home” buildings and
vehicles are passed a number of which display the titles in Japanese.
Satoshi Kon’ previous films had wonderful soundtracks this is no different. Full
of humour and action, and ending with a somewhat bizarre rendition of “Ode to
Joy” listening is as much as watching.
Tokyo Godfathers feels is poignant and hard-hitting from beginning to end. Yet
feels effortless to watch. The audience is never nagged, never forced in
to taking sides.
If Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the greatest Christmas story ever told. Tokyo
Godfathers would be the greatest Christmas story ever drawn and brought to life
on screen. Like Dickens, Kon has allowed for a happy ending, and like A
Christmas Carol Tokyo Godfathers has the ability to reach people of all
religions throughout the whole of the year.
Extras:
Tokyo Godfathers single edition DVD contains Japanese 5.1 and
DTS audio plus Spanish 5.1 While the subtitles cover many languages, there has
never been an English language dub released. The disc feature trailers for Sony/Animax
2005/2006 releases.
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