Tokyo Godfathers

Starring:Toru Emori, Aya Okamoto, Yoshiaki Umegaki, ShÃ´zÃ´ ÃŽzuka, SeizÃ´ KatÃ´, Hiroya Ishimaru, YÃ»saku Yara, RyÃ»ji Saikachi, KyÃ´ko Terase, Mamiko Noto, Akio Ã”tsuka, Rikiya Koyama, Satomi Koorogi, Mitsuru Ogata, Chiyako Shibahara, Kazuaki Ito, Atsuko Yuya, Jin Horikawa, Masao Harada, Yoshinori Sonobe
Director: ShÃ´go Furuya, Satoshi Kon
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Satoshi Kon's third feature (following Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress) confirms his status as one of the most interesting directors working in anime. Tokyo Godfathers centers on three homeless people: Hana, a flamboyant ex-drag entertainer; Gin, an alcoholic former bicycle racer; and Miyuki, a sullen teenage runaway. Their tenuous existence becomes more chaotic when they set out to find the parents of an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve. They scream insults as they confront the lies they've told each other--and themselves--about the past. Yet they remain curiously endearing and even noble. All three care passionately about the abandoned infant, and they love each other, although they're loath to admit it. Kon skillfully uses color to suggest the bitter winter cold and the characters' alienation. Tokyo Godfathers shows that battling the inner demons that led these three characters to skid row can be a more daunting challenge than fighting aliens and cyborgs. (Rated PG-13: profanity, violence, tobacco and alcohol use) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

It's So Cool!.......2007-03-11

I've never seen a Satoshi Kon film before but after seeing this one I wouldn't mind seeing more. This is the story of three homless people that happen to find each other a become a "family" of sorts. Each have their own tragic pasts, but evrything changes one Christmas Eve when they find a baby girl in the garbage. Many amazing thing happen to these three as they try to take care of the baby and return her to her parents.
This film is drawn very well, It's very realistice. If you like films in Japanese with english subtitle then you'll definitely like this one.

A Must !!!.......2007-01-26

El trabajo artistico quita el aliento, la historia es fresca y comica, el factor humano fue trabajado como la vida real.

Beautiful, one of the best.......2006-07-04

I saw this on some movie channel awhile back and fell in love. Every aspect of this movie is incredible, from characters, design, story, to the voice-overs, it was wonderful. It's definitely not your average giant robo/magic girl/samurai/demon/action/what have you-style anime. Instead it's a touching (almost believable, as far as anime goes) and engrossing film about a trio of hobos in search of an abandoned baby's parents on Christmas Eve. But there is so much more than that. Simply put, this is one of the few anime's to really touch my heart. Unless all you are into is Inuyasha style mediocrity, you must see this. A movie has never made me cry, yet this one came real close. I can't say exactly why, but I love this movie more than almost anything else I've ever seen. (even more than Spirited Away)

An Animated Drama You Can't Refuse!.......2006-04-26

I'll be the first to admit that my preference in anime and movies in general tends to be for the magic, the larger than life adventures, the epic battles and the surreal mind trips through other worlds. But anime isn't all magical girls, mecha, battle action and hentai-and Tokyo Godfathers isn't any of those things. Director and writer Satoshi Kon is a past master of dramatic tension and character development and those who have scene Millennium Actress or Perfect Blue may have more of an idea what to expect from this movie-but I suspect even they won't anticipate how the story twists and turns.

The setting is Tokyo at Christmas time. The characters are three homeless people: Hana, an aging drag queen, Gin, an embittered drunkard, and Miyuki, a smart mouthed teenage runaway. This unlikely "family" is about to find their lives forever changed by the discovery of a newborn baby abandoned in the trash. Sounds kind of depressing, doesn't it? The characters don't seem like they'd be likable at first, the animation isn't forgiving-these characters aren't idealized stereotypes. And then the "magic" begins. Satoshi slowly and subtly unveils his characters through the movie's unexpected twists and turns. What starts as a quest to return a baby, becomes a journey of self-discovery, adventure and redemption for these three remarkable characters. And by the end, you're breathlessly along for the ride. It's a movie that's a reminder of how incredibly good character development can be-and rarely is, even on the live action screen. For a viewer like myself, it was a surprising and touching treat. And belongs in any decent anime collection.

The animation style is gritty and realistic. Don't expect the typical big eyes or wild hair. Nor are there the stylistic chibi-cuteness moments, or wild takes that are so common in anime. It's not cute, and it doesn't try to be. This isn't an anime for the kiddies-there's tough stuff to deal with here. The nudity and sexuality of this story is pretty minimal-a few boob comments and a shot or two of babies breastfeeding. The violence isn't gory or showy-but when it's included it cuts right through the viewer. The real reason this isn't for kids is because it will take a mature audience to understand what's going on. I don't think most youngsters will appreciate the subtlety, or be ready for the types of issues presented. The message at the heart of this movie, however, is universal. It's about all the connections and permutations of family, about the ties that bind us and bring people to care. It's about small miracles.

If you are already an anime fan and you're willing to try something different from the usual fantasy or SF fare, this is a great place to start. If this is your first foray into anime, or you've been put off from the medium before, this is also a great place to start. If you're looking for curvy girls with saucer sized eyes and gumdrop colored hair, bouncy theme songs, cute fuzzy sidekicks and tricked out robot giants, find something else-this isn't the anime you're looking for. If you like this, you might also want to check out Satoshi Kon's other work, especially Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress.

Happy Viewing! ^_^ Shanshad

A series of fortunate events........2006-04-03

I'm glad I watched Tokyo Godfathers. For months, I'd passed up watching it, being thrown off by the somewhat gritty animation look that the box portrays, and wondering about the plot. 3 homeless people taking care of a baby that they find abandoned in the trash? I'm not one to judge movies based on their premise, thinking the plot sounded "too depressing" or anything, but you can't help but wonder if it was just a plot device to get more sympathy from the viewer. I'm ashamed for thinking that, as Tokyo Godfathers never pulls any cheap stunts to get a reaction out of you. This is a very mature animated movie. The typical Japanese animation fan will most likely be turned off by Tokyo Godfathers- it doesn't have any super cutesy characters, high-pitched annoying voices, random lapses into chibi-ism, or anything else normal in your standard animated series. And when I noticed that there weren't super-skinny, big chested women, or cliche lone wolf characters with a scar over their eye or anything, I sighed with relief. This is not your typical animated movie.

The movie centers around 3 homeless people, who work and live together in order to survive. Gin, more or less the leader of the group, is an older man who used to have gambling and drinking problems. Hana is an ex-drag entertainer who wants nothing more than to have a child of his own. Miyuki is a teenage runaway who left home after a huge fight with her parents. It's Christmas time in Tokyo, and the three are living their lives normally until they discover a very young baby in a pile of trash. It's been abandoned, and has a note saying "please take care of this baby" near it. Needless to say, the group is heartbroken. Who could do this? Especially on Christmas of all times! Hana sees the child as a miracle, granting him his wish on Christmas, and wants to keep it. But Gin, the more reasonable one, insists that they take it to the police so the parents can be found. What follows is a lengthy journey to find the parents, while being caught in lies they've told each other over the years. The three care for each other, but shame prevents them from being 100% honest with one another. In fact, when one of the group sees someone they know, it's very vague as to who that person is for a while until they admit what's happened in the past. The truth will surface after time- it doesn't matter who you are. Even the mother who abandoned the baby will reveal her motives, honorable or not. And fighting the truth is always a much bigger problem than fighting super-powerful samurai cyborg ninja, or attaining a higher power level than someone who can destroy the world by spending 5 episodes charging up.

The first thing you need for any movie to be enjoyable is a good cast of characters. Tokyo Godfathers has this in spades. In most movies, Gin would be the wise old man who could solve any problem on his own in 5 seconds. But since this is a more realistic approach to a situation, he's in the dark just as much as the others. He's a noble man, not taking being homeless as a bitter thing, and knows the consequences for being "just a bum". He helps out another homeless man by giving him a drink and giving him a warm bed as he's dying. Just as he leaves to regroup with the others, a group of teenage boys attacks him for being "trash". He doesn't flip out over this, as it's probably happened numerous times before. Hana makes for a great motherly figure in the movie, drag queen or not. He watches over both Gin and Miyuki well, and especially the baby when it falls into their hands. Hana absolutely protects that baby for as long as possible, and does a truly noble thing in the final moments of the picture. And it's not just to do something noble for the hell of it, or to redeem himself after doing something wrong- it's because Hana believes in the right thing. This is apparent when Hana becomes seriously injured later on, and ends up using Gin's 30,000 Yen he had saved up for when he got to see his daughter again. Hana was devastated that Gin's life savings had to be used on him, but without Hana's injury, a fortunate event wouldn't have taken place. And then there's Miyuki. I loved her deep voice. It's a great change from the normally high-pitched heroine voices I've heard over the years. She's a gruff woman that has no problem telling off people. While she gets the least time of the group to reveal her problems, you'll feel for her when she has a nightmare over the situation that led to her present state. I won't ruin any moments she has for you, but a truly memorable one involves her taking shelter with a Latin woman who provides milk for the baby. Because there are probably very few Spanish-speaking people in Japan, no subtitles are provided for her part of the conversation. Yet the two manage to talk about things with simple words they've learned. It goes to show you that you don't need to know someone else's' language to get along with them. Finally, I have to give it to director Satoshi Kon for creating this brilliant movie. You could call this "A Series of Fortunate Events" and get away with it. Almost everything that happens in this movie is linked to the next event, and it works. What could be ironic or a scapegoat in any other movie works here without any flaws. I found myself laughing when something intelligent happened, like one of the characters meeting someone they knew before they were homeless, or something they said earlier being recalled by another later on. There's also the open-ended aspect of each time the truth is out- we don't see the full conclusion of an event. It's up to us to determine how it went.

Since this is a more modern movie, the picture quality was outstanding. There's hardly any grain to be found, and no interlacing errors that I noticed. Blacks are solid, and the overall grey tone to the picture doesn't hinder anything at all. And you have to hand it to the animators for using an almost constant snowfall without any fuzz or problems. I should also mention that there isn't much CG used here, which is a big plus in my book. Aside from a few small instances, and when characters are chasing vehicles, the majority of this movie is hand drawn, and it looks absolutely brilliant. This is some of the most fluid animation I've ever seen. Amusingly, there's only the Japanese language track on here (in Dolby 5.1). I guess the studio had enough of their poor dubs in the past. There are English, Spanish, Portuguese and French subtitles you can turn on. Tokyo Godfathers is mostly dialogue driven, so there's little use for surround sound. In fact, I only noticed two scenes where tons of babies were crying when I noticed surround sound. It's alright though- this is a drama, not an action picture. The audio is clear of fuzz, so there's nothing to ruin hearing what the characters say.

The only extra on here, aside from trailers, is a 22 minute making-of featurette. The majority of this covers the plot, and the film's debut in New York, where the director, Kon, got a standing ovation by the audience. The best part of this featurette though, involves meeting the 3 main voice actors. Toru Emori, who provides Gin's voice, is a cool yet serious guy, wearing a full suit while voice acting. He's very laid back, and gives some good info on what he thought of the movie and voice acting. Yoshiaki Umegaki, who plays Hana, is a colorful character who has a lot of expression in his face, as well as some wild hair coloring and the outfit to match. Aya Okamoto who plays Miyuki, looks completely different from the character she plays. She's a petite woman, as opposed to the slightly overweight girl she voices, but has that deep voice that doesn't look like it should be coming from her. She's full of character, and is a joy to listen to as she interviews Kon, going over her casting process and describing the movie. The last parts of this featurette show us Mad House studios, and how they used multiple layers for brilliant background scenes, and another interview with Kon where the guy interviewing him talks more than he does. This is a fairly good featurette.

There are many reasons why you should watch this- to see a mature animated movie, to see characters with more depth than those in what Hollywood's putting out these days, to see something with heart, or to see amazing animation that doesn't come in the form of CG. Tokyo Godfathers is a masterpiece, plain and simple.

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