Tokyo Godfathers

By Mal -
6 out of 10
Continuing my adventures in Japanese animation, Tokyo Godfathers is a tale of three homeless and somewhat mismatched friends and their attempts to return an abandoned baby back to its parents. Set at Christmas, all 3 main characters find themselves reflecting a lot on their past, becoming closer in the process, as the film rams home the warmth-of-the-family message. The tale itself is ok, I guess; a little eccentric thanks to its characters and packed full of increasingly ridiculous coincidences.

The animation is, at the same time, both glorious and just as heavy-handed as the story. The scenes of Tokyo in winter are at times stunning, but the characters’ are the most caricatured I’ve yet to see in anime. So much so that it spoiled it a little for me. Wacky’s fine, but that was extreme. To be fair, though, it wouldn’t have been the same film without it. Overall, not bad, but I’ve enjoyed the Studio Ghibli stuff more.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downfall

By -
7 out of 10 Hitler, eh, he was crackers, wasn't he, or was he? This film sets about trying to get the bottom of this question, detailing the last few hours of his life in his bunker in Berlin as the red army approached. The film, some would say rather controversially, answers the question early on with his pie fight with Himler coming as the starting credits fade. What follows is a romp through the final desperate hours of a ridiculous regime as they all, but their leader, seem to have grasped the fact that they’re buggered. The film has many memorable and chilling scenes, such as Dr Goebbels’ wife killing her own children rather than letting them fall into Communist hands. And the bit where Hitler’s dog is given cyanide for a laugh, with some superb acting by the dog. Anyway, if you’re interested in the madness of what went on in that bunker in Hitler’s last hours, this is for you. I would, however, also recommend Das Bunker und Laughs for a ve...
Read more

The Brothers Grimm

By -
5 out of 10 On the face of it The Brothers Grimm is a perfect match for the dark surrealism of Terry Gilliam . However it fails to live up to its potential. The brothers (played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger ) are travelling con-artists who arrive in a village with a real fairy tale curse. For a Fairy tale the cinematography is very grey and brown. There is little of the Gilliam imagination that we might have expected. Most surprising of all is that the special effects ranged from the sublime (blobby gingerbread man) to the downright awful. A scene where a CGI scarf was floating down a river was particularly derisible. At times it seems that the script is a vehicle for referencing yet another fairy tale rather than to tell the tale that the viewer is actually watching. This is a shame because when the movie does get going there are moments to enjoy.
Read more