Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

From the mind of writer and director Satoshi Kon (Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue), Tokyo Godfathers is a truly original film with genuine heart and character. The story follows three of the most unlikely characters as they attempt to bring an infant home to its parents. I cannot stress the “unlikely” in these heroes, especially in an animated film of this nature. You would never see characters like these in a Disney film or even a Miyazaki film for that matter. The three “Godfathers” are homeless people consisting of Gin, a bum, Miyuki, a runaway teenager, and Hana, a transvestite. The three characters clash greatly with Hana (voiced brilliantly by Yoshiaki Umegaki) being the hopeless optimist while Gin (Toru Emori) and Miyuki (Aya Okamoto) are much more cynical. While the basic premise of the story sounds simple enough, because of the nature of the protagonists, it is darkly comical and could only have been thought up by a mind like Kon’s.

It is essentially a Christmas film as the three unlikely heroes find the infant on Christmas Eve and everything that follows on their quest is tied to the “magic” of the child, presented in the form of coincidence and fate. Their quest leads them all over Tokyo from the central part of the city to the slums to even a yakuza wedding (the circumstances of this are particularly amusing). The city itself is as much a part of their story as the characters. The baby is found in a garbage pile and everything that follows is funny, suspenseful, and often touching. This is a major credit to the characters. Each one of them is complex and has their own history and reasoning explaining their actions and thoughts, and though the characters might seem exaggerated in the way that they move and yell at each other, the way they interact is not. By the end they have all evolved over the course of their adventure experiencing and learning of trust, love, and above all, redemption.

The animation is stunning and the characters are very detailed, but never too much so as they are often displaying an exaggerated sense of emotion, particularly Hana. This contrast between the more serious way the characters and situations are written and the comical and more lighthearted art style prevents the film’s tone from falling too far in one direction. Instead it maintains a perfect balance of dark humor. There is a great scene where Hana reveals the way he feels about his relationship with Gin and how he is aware of how it will end. After retelling a bittersweet fable about sacrifice to Mizuki, she asks him what happens to him when everything is over. Instead of a response there is a close-up shot from behind of him staring off into the distance, but only for a moment. The film doesn’t dwell on it and make the scene sappy, but instead you are left with an image of loneliness in a character that for the majority of the film is the most optimistic and upbeat, essentially driving the plot forward.

There are plenty of quiet moments like these that make the characters easy to care about and sympathize with. The voice acting is perfect for each character, and again I need to mention Hana here because this character could have easily been annoying with the wrong voice. Instead Yoshiaki Umegaki keeps the character funny and without being too much to the point where the character dominates every scene. With Tokyo Godfathers, Satoshi Kon proves once again that he knows how to weave a fascinating and beautiful story, bringing it to life in the way that only he knows how.