OK so, granted-Tokyo! the Korean/French omnibus about the capital city of Japan DID come out a couple of weeks a go, BUT I only got to see it last night and lets face it, this is EXACTLY the kind of movie that should be reviewed on BYT (whimsical, vaguely self-important, brightly colored….) and since it will play at E Street for at least one more week, here is a review.
TOKYO! kind of (but not really) like Paris Je T’aime is a series of short movies about a city. UNLIKE Paris Je T’aime it is not so much a short story collection as a novella piece of a movie.
You only get 3 stories and so-you better make the most of them.
Here is what we are working with:
INTERIOR DESIGN
by Michel Gondry (of Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and music video genius fame, who will, I hear these days draw your portrait for 19.95 dollars)
In which, a young couple arrives to Tokyo on a rainy night, with no money, a car that is bound to get towed and a smoke machine and attempt to make some sort of a life for themselves while crashing in the teeeeeeeeny tiiiiiiiiiinyyyyy apartment of one of their high school friends. The boy, Akira, is a (bad) filmmaker, and the Girl has no apparent driving interests of her own which result in her questioning her own self worth, and being pouty a lot. The question though is, is it better to be interested in something you are bad at (Akira is not very good at making movies, and we know this because we get to see his movie) or just superficially interested in a number of things you’re decent at?
The movie takes us through the interiors of Tokyo apartments and through the interiors of our heroine, who, for lack of better (less trite) description finds a Kafkaesque solution to her dilemma.
Overall grade: B
MERDE
by Leos Carax
is decidedly more apocaliptyc in tone and frankly, I liked only the first 5 minutes or so of it. If he kept his story of an underground dwelling “man-creature” to a form of a music video in which he merrily terrorizes Tokyo while sight-seeing it, I would have been happy.
But he had to bring in plot, destruction, Japanese history metaphors and in general, kind of get in over his head.
All I can say is-this portion was WISELY put in the middle, while you’re still reeling from movie #1 and anticipating movie #3. You are a captive audience, and they know it, so they milk it for what its worth.
Overal grade: C for lack of restraint
AND FINALLY, my favorite
SHAKING TOKYO
by Bong Joon-Ho (who directed “The Host” that funny/scary/underground sea monster Korean movie from a little while back)
In which, a young man, a recluse (a hikikomori) for 10 years is forced into human interaction with a pretty pizza delivery girl with buttons all over her body, just waiting to be pushed, and the decision/journey he takes to meet her again.
What I loved about this story is well, EVERYTHING (even though the NYTimes review assured me this was the weakest link in this TOKYO! chain): the neat set up of a life at the beginning, the subtleties of human interaction, the abandoned Tokyo our hero transverses, the sweet cheese of the finale. It was everything that makes my cinematic heart beat a little faster.
When I walked out I said: “This story was just like something I would have written when I was 17 if I was aware of the Miranda July and Mike Mills back then”, which basically sums up what I think more movies should be like these days.
It was great.
Overall grade: A- for simple pleasures.
To sum it up: the movie was good, if uneven, and you will be glad to see it on the big screen where the city it celebrates and all its teeny details are allowed to breathe fully.
GO.
i am super curious to know what people think of it
May 3, 2009 at 11:14 pmSaw this in NYC when it opened there (not sure, VictoryRose, if it’s still at Sunshine Cinema) and really, really LOVED the final piece. The middle was funny up until the whole courtroom thing, and the first one just made me a) love the sound of rain falling and b) feel bad for all characters involved, including the towed car. A nice way to spend a rainy/cold/otherwise lackluster afternoon, and an interesting triptych.
May 4, 2009 at 2:17 pmGreat review – I agree with your grades for part 1 and 3 but Amy and I actually loved part 2 and actually had to pause when the popes hat flew off cause we were laughing so hard and We’ve been doing the language for the past ywo days. I loved the comic book panels and the fact that it went too far but then went farther so it was ok again.
December 21, 2009 at 1:07 pm
so, kinda like the film 4 rooms without a tim roth character?
i have been dying to see this. maybe try to do it this weekend now that it will be raining 24/7. thanks svet!
May 1, 2009 at 5:22 pm