The Exonian Reviews: Tokyo Godfathers
By AMERSON LIANG and LEVI STOLL
For many Americans, the holiday season is not the same without its staple movies. Having many relatives over with so little to do, spending time watching films with family will never fail to add festivity to the already joyful merrymaking. A common tradition in plenty of homes across the country is to watch movies such as “Elf”, “Home Alone”, “Die Hard”, and “Miracle on 34st Street.” But the joy of the season is not exclusive to America. Multiple other countries such as Japan have their own traditions to celebrate each winter, eventually extending to pop culture. One piece of media, displaying the Christmas spirit in a new light is “Tokyo Godfathers” (2003) which explores the idea of love and family.
The film was written by Satoshi Kon, known for producing huge animated films such as “Paprika”, an avant-garde, psychedelic thriller, which was seen as inspiration to the critically acclaimed “Inception.” Kon worked alongside studio director Shogo Furuya, who also previously worked on the all time classic Ghibli movie, “Spirited Away.” Madhouse Inc. produced the project immediately after Kon’s creation of “Millenium Actress,” and began with a 2.4 million dollar budget. Kon was inspired by the 1913 story “The Three Godfathers” when writing the film as the basis for his characters. As an anime movie, the team required a cast of voice actors and animators to put together a screenplay of 96 minutes. The original was voiced in Japanese, and was translated into other languages. We watched the movie subtitled in English.
The movie begins on Christmas Eve, with two of our three protagonists at a church getting some food. The two then meet with the other protagonist on the top of a roof as they have their supper. They all come from very different backgrounds but have ended up together as people without homes. Going from shortest to tallest, there is Miyuki, presumed to be a highschool runaway, Gin, an alcoholic who left his family behind, and Hana, a transgender woman who ended up on the streets. Together they are almost like a family, sharing meals, with a lovable banter between each other, especially Miyuki and Gin, while Hana plays a motherly role. After eating, the gang looks through a garbage pile where Gin hid a Christmas present for Miyuki, but are interrupted by a crying, abandoned baby. This set ups the rest of the movie, where the three decide on what they do with the baby, entering conflicts with each other and running into problems as they get closer to their resolution.
The focus of the movie is family, a staple to the holiday spirit. All three of our protagonists come together fostering a new sense of love between each other. It is almost as if, together, they created their own family, despite all of their intrinsic flaws. Each character has lost family, or pines for it within themselves, but as homeless people, they don’t have a home to return to, or a family. Another important theme of the film is to keep hope, which is depicted through all three characters, a prime example being Gin, who believes he has failed himself, but in helping another homeless man finds both a purpose and a winning lottery ticket. This lottery ticket is a key part of another one of the movie’s themes: the belief in miracles. Many miracles occur during the film; a character miraculously floats down from a roof, the protagonists coincidentally stop a woman from committing suicide, and a man is saved from a crushing weight only due to sheer luck. These bizarre miracles eventually become normalized to the viewer, a natural part of the surreal adventure, finding hope no matter how dire the circumstances may be.
Labeled as a tragicomedy, the movie isn’t meant to be all fun and games. Nevertheless, it keeps an upbeat tone throughout, with the backing tracks adding to the gestalt. Movies are meant to be watched with others, and in that regard, please do so. Be prepared to cry a little, but at the end of the day, remember that those who you choose to surround yourself with are really what matters.
