Review of Tokyo Godfathers (2003) by Chan W — 29 Aug 2010

Satoshi Kon tackles the Christmas movie. You don't see many of these coming out of Japanese animation, but this one's certainly one for the memories.

The whole cast turns strong, memorable performances, with not a single voice out of place with these characters. As expected from a Satoshi Kon film, it's a cut above and then some above the majority of the anime out there.

The core story is easily the least out there and most down to earth of Kon's films. Rather than your usual cliche middle class holiday story, we get a trio of wonderfully humanized homeless misfits, all of whom have their own stories to tell and naturally, difficult pasts to reckon with. They find an abandoned baby girl in the trash and the transvestite hobo, Hana, dubs her a gift from god. Their fortunes gradually begin a serendipitous change as they set themselves to the difficult task of locating the baby's parents, following a series of clues. The characters are all very much unlike what you expect to see in anime or cinema in general, the homeless and social issues around them rarely a focal point anywhere, as much as humanity loves to simply let them quietly slip through the cracks.

The soundtrack is very quirky but suits the film's atmosphere at any given moment, and the animation is as unique and brilliant as ever, in Satoshi Kon's distinct style. You're drawn into the darker side of the Tokyo cityscape in a beautiful way that makes you want to go there and see the city at night for yourself. It's a beautiful film across the board.

While still Kon's seemingly least ambitious film overall, Tokyo Godfathers is still a fantastic holiday film - it'll be a mainstay for me from now on - with truly enjoyable characters, an engaging, smart, funny plot, and gorgeous animation all throughout.

As of my writing this, Satoshi Kon passed away just days short of his 47th birthday from pancreatic cancer. His final film will be released posthumously last year. Though he only brought us a handful of films and a TV series, he was a key figure in a new wave of Japanese animation directors whose fantastic talent and fresh animation style will be sorely missed.