Film: Tokyo Godfathers
Release date: 13th September 2004
Certificate: 12
Running time: 88 mins
Director: Satoshi Kon
Starring: Toru Emori, Aya Okamoto, Yoshiaki Umegaki, Shôzô Îzuka, Seizô Katô
Genre: Anime
Studio: Sony
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
In August 2010, the world sadly lost a truly unique talent of the world of anime direction. Though he only has four feature films (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika) and a TV series (Paranoia Agent) to his name, Satoshi Kon’s striking visual sensibilities and unconventional narrative style makes his body of work a real benchmark of the industry – something for anime directors to aim for, and something that is rarely bettered. His penultimate film, Tokyo Godfathers, is a Christmas story with a difference. Unusually for an anime (and especially unusual when compared to Kon’s other work), it is solidly grounded in reality, and can therefore discuss real-world social problems with ease.
Tokyo Godfathers tells the story of three homeless people who find an abandoned baby and decide to find her parents. On the way, the act of caring for the child changes each character in a profound way, and makes them consider what went wrong in their lives.
A truly unusual combination of characters, the group comprises of Gin (Tōru Emori), a grouchy and dishevelled former bicycle shop owner, Hana (Yoshiaki Umegaki), a homeless drag queen, and Miyuki (Aya Okamoto), a teenage runaway.
The story opens on Christmas Eve, where, after a seasonal ‘family’ argument, the group stumble upon a baby girl alone in a pile of rubbish. Hana is only too eager to act as the new child’s mother, but Gin is painfully reminded of his own lost daughter Kiyoko (the same name the group agrees to give the baby girl), and Miyuki of the family she ran away from. Despite the reluctance of Hana to let go of the baby, they all resolve to find Kiyoko’s real parents and return her to them.
Their journey is far from simple, as the only clue they have is a picture of the baby and her parents. Numerous obstacles also come between the group and their goal, and even when they reach their destination, a final twist in the plot thwarts them once more.
Each of the character’s back stories is gradually revealed over the course of their journey. What became of Gin’s family and career? How does a drag queen like Hana end up on the streets? And just why did Miyuku run away?
Their story is utterly enthralling, and the more you find out, the more you become attached to each of the characters. The film also transcends genre, beginning as a social commentary, then becoming a heart-warming family drama, then a road movie, and ending up as a thriller, with a liberal dose of comedy throughout. Your emotions while watching the film are truly stretched to their limit - one moment you’ll be laughing your head off, the next you’ll be struggling to hold back tears.
Undoubtedly the highlight of the film is the well thought-out and complex relationship between this ‘family’ of homeless people. Gin, on the outside, appears gruff, drunken and quick to anger, an embodiment of the stereotypical tramp, but in reality is a caring soul, and deeply regrets the path his life has taken, especially concerning his lost family. Hana is more open about his emotions. He sees the importance of the group sticking together and, at the very least, tolerating each other, but is highly secretive about other aspects of his life such as his past, especially his unrequited love for Gin. Miyuki acts a spoilt brat (an achievement for someone on the streets) and appears, for the most part, to begrudge hanging around with Gin and Hana (calling the former “old man” and the latter “Auntie Bag”), but really she regrets her decision to run away from her family, and looks up to Gin and Hana as parental figures.
The quality of the animation is also extremely high. This is not the overly stylised and fantastical animation of Hayao Miyazaki. Satoshi Kon has made his film world seem solid and real. You can see real emotions running through his characters, you feel every one of their experiences, and even the animated version of the city of Tokyo seems to be bustling with life.
If anything really detracts from the film, it would be a particular sequence in the middle of the film which involves the characters being invited to a gangster’s daughter’s wedding (they save him from being run over by his own car). At the wedding, Gin recognises a man whom he blames for the bad turn his life has taken. Before Gin can act on his ill feelings, the man is killed by an assassin disguised as a waiter, and Miyuki, who is carrying Kiyoko, is kidnapped in the confusion. This scene is quite jarring in its change of tone. We are momentarily plunged into the world of organised crime and politically-motivated contract killers, and it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the story. The scene serves little purpose apart from splitting the characters up and forcing them to find each other again. Rather than driving the narrative, this scene stops it dead.
You could also consider one of the underlying messages of the film as being a detractor. Satoshi Kon famously made his films in a way so that you can interpret the true meaning of them in any way that you wish. It really depends on how you see the story. If taken as a tale of newfound responsibility to an infant changing the lives of three people at the bottom of the social ladder, then the film really does have something to say. However, if you focus on the religious connotations of the film, it can become a little whimsical and preachy, a clumsy reinvention of the nativity story transposed to modern Tokyo.
Tokyo Godfathers can easily be considered the most accessible of Satoshi Kon’s films. It’s not as dark and psychoanalytic as Perfect Blue, not as confusing as Millennium Actress or as downright mad as Paprika. It’s a real story about real people, but told exceptionally well. It really does express the true meaning of family. The characters may not be blood related, but they truly love and truly need each other. They squabble and sulk, they have good times and bad, but they stick together through thick and thin. Out on the streets, their deep friendship is all they have, and with the addition of a baby to look after, their family is completed.
The true joy in watching Tokyo Godfathers lies in the way the story is told, and the in-depth characterisation. Unlike the usual exaggerated, fantastical characters found in many works of anime, Gin, Hana and Miyuki really do feel real, and you’d have to have a heart of stone not to empathise with them as they try and return a baby girl to her parents. SSP
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