Tokyo Godfathers: A Nearly Lost Tale of Understanding

I guess I've officially consider my financial state to be poor. This is because my shift at the front desk is just dragging on. Eight o'clock is the time that I like to start thinking about blogging, but it's 7:00 pm hence I've ran out of things to do with the Internet. At least things that I can afford to do with my time.

MovieDebuts.com 

 

Fortunately, Netflix came through for me when I received Satoshi Kon's "Tokyo Godfathers." Sadly, renting it through this service is the most affordable way to do so (I really should have booted up my Window Vista PC, my Dazzle Video Import hardware and Roxio software...first time I ever consider using the tech for piracy). When you consider the old movies that may never see streaming services, the $7.99 DVD service is really worth it. And it kind of makes you have to watch it ASAP because if you do not, you negate the value of your purchase (like cancelling Nerd Block too late..."Evangelion," worth 35/"Mr. Bean," not worthless). This also makes my "not going to get shitfaced nights" dedicated to watching new flicks (to me) so I'll can get back into the practice of writing movie reviews. I figure my knowledge of film should further support why "Guy Does Finishing Moves on Zombies," to promote "Main Event of the Dead" needs to be completed. If he knows the medium so well, surely his script (that you can get a treatment of by e-mailing russthebus07@gmail.com) can't be too bad.

Keep in mind, this course of action will only occur on nights that I'm not going to be a poor bore at the front desk. I need to save my other sober nights for "Disney Infinity" and "Infamous."

Tokyo Godfathers

This film from one of my favorite anime directors ("Perfect Blue" is a must view) is quite an appropriate title when it comes to my developed course of action for slow hotel nights. Three homeless Tokyo residents are trying their best to be cheery on Christmas Eve, but it's difficult for the alcoholic Gin, transvestite Hana, and runaway Miyuki to stand each other, let alone accept the spirit of the season. God may be looking over them, because as they are digging through the trash for some classic literature for Miyuki, they hear the whines of a newborn baby.

Hana believes this is his "virgin birth" and decides that he must play the role of mother, refusing to listen to his compatriots that they need to turn the newly christened Kiyoko (translates to messenger of God) to the police. Because the immediate needs of the child, Gin softens his stance and Miyuki can relate to the child's plight in her own way. A compromised is reached in the morning when Hana demands that he cannot give the baby up until her parents explain their actions to him. So, the three that society have forgotten will venture on a quest to find a baby's parents that may lead the three to finally understanding and accepting each other.

I think Kon realized that story may be a bit cliche, so Yakuza, wannabe Droogs and hidden ailments of the three compatriots will present themselves to add greater challenges to our protagonists.

I will warn you this is a subtitled only release. The positive of this is that the authenticity of the translation cannot be questioned. The negatives are whatever the typical person has to bitch about reading. My only issue with the lack of a dub is that I like to see multiple angles to my animation. It's a different art to dubbing animation, and with anime's lack of mouth movement to the correct sound spoken, a good dub is about as good as a track where I will not recognize the actors. For fun, a dub can also throw in extra sounds/dialogue to explain the story even further.

Aside from this, "Tokyo Godfathers" is one of the best subtle stories I have seen in anime. Do not worry, crazy things will occur, but they happen to further our understanding of the characters, not to just break up monotony. It's kind of like the J. R. R. Tolkien adaptations to screen, but every action scene provides depth to the protagonist(s) instead of serving as an obstacle to present the illusion that the story is more than midgets walking towards a goal.

The character of Miyuki offers a lot more to be discovered about her, and the story only breaks the surface. Fortunately, the adult characters, the easiest to understand characters, are totally flushed out, so their stories and how they could seemingly coexist make the film very rewarding. Kon realizes that it is still a cartoon, so the film has a style that lacks realism which may make swallowing some of the tougher character traits a little easier.

Also he successfully reminds us of the medium with the incorporation of devices where characters comfortably break the fourth wall. They're very subtle devices that are not too far removed from Wile E. Coyote holding up one of his signs.

A huge positive of this film is how Kon was able to bring together three story-lines into just 90 minutes. That seems like a daunting task for many Asian directors to do with only one line to follow, and perhaps its through making the audience yearn to see the characters stick together that makes it work so well. Kon obliges, and you are given the time to pop "Perfect Blue" into the player (that's why I keep two VHS decks on standby) to see the range of his storytelling ability in just one night.

"Tokyo Godfathers" is a case for preventing a major distributor (Sony in this case) from getting a hold of marvelous niche films. I doubt there is any rush on their behalf for a Blu-Ray of this masterpiece in storytelling, so it maybe a decade before we can easily see this feature again. Since this and Kon's "Millenium Actress" suffer from poor distributing and Satoshi Kon has since passed away, I fear he may be forgotten in the states as one of the best directors of traditional animation.

90-min Pro Wrestling Crate - "Boone: The Bounty Hunter: All Heart, No Vision"