Tokyo Godfathers

Year: 2003
Genre: Animated Drama
Directed: Satochi Kon
Stars: Toru Emori, Aya Okamoto, Yoshiaki Umegaki, Shozo Izuka, Seizo Kato, Hiroya Ishimaru, Ryuji Saikachi, Yusaku Yara, Kyoko Terase, Mamiko Noto
Production: Mad House Ltd.

I’ve had to work on Christmas day four times in five years. So you can imagine that while I’m totally and advocate for merriment and good will towards man, I do have a bit of a humbug up my ass when it comes to the season. Your memories of Christmas might entail opening presents by the tree, mine has to deal with you and your family in the afternoon, trying to find the best combination of food items that will keep your kids happy and your wallet full (can’t happen by the way). Then as you leave, I have to clean up the mess. Yet “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is still a beautiful song and there are plenty of movies that warm the cockles of my heart when the holidays come around.

Don't see me complaining about working on Christmas

I can go through the gambit of classic holiday films, each of which conjures memories. One of the few traditions my family had was watching A Christmas Story (1983) on Christmas Day. While many appreciate or rather celebrate holiday snark with neo-classics like Bad Santa (2003), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) is still a staple of holiday cynicism for yours truly. And of course for unbridled Christmas spirit you can’t go wrong with the occasionally corny Love Actually (2003) or the genuine Joyeux Noel (2005).

I didn’t think it would be possible to surprise when it came to Christmas films but I recently sat down to watch Tokyo Godfathers (2003) and had my inner pessimist silenced for a an hour an a half. The movie sets up our three protagonists: Gin, a cynical hard drinking loner, Hana, an interminably happy transvestite and Miyuki, a teenage runaway. All three live on the streets of Tokyo and scrounge up a living collecting bottles and making the rounds to the soup kitchens. On Christmas Eve while rummaging they find a baby in a garbage heap. Gin wants to go straight to the police while Hana wants to keep it. The three ultimately decide to find the parents and go on an adventure across the city involving crime syndicates, burlesque clubs and fateful coincidences.

Was ostracized for that face, right there

Throughout the night, we as the audience slowly discover the reasons for the trio’s current state. They are lost souls redeemed by their mission and each must come face to face with their myriad of issues. We sympathize with their loneliness and revel in their joy when the mismatched heroes become a makeshift family. All while of course enjoying the arguments, the fights and the jests. It is after all an animated movie.

The hand-drawn animation of Tokyo Godfathers is incredibly well detailed. The visage of a bustling city with so many moving parts is something to admire in a live action movie. In an animated movie, the detail is a downright miracle that likely took years, or an army of animators to make. The fact that principle story takes place in Tokyo’s neon evenings creates a contemporary setting that is almost never seen in the works of Hayao Miyazaki who creates his own, new worlds instead on expanding the old. The effect is elating.

All this effort and you don't bother to create your own reality?!

In fact, outside of Hayao Miyazaki, I’m not too familiar with anime as a subgenre of animation. I am appreciative of their contributions to animation and storytelling in general and I applaud any cartoons that introduce adult themes. Still, the cultural differences are a bit to overcome when you consider Americans have a slightly different definition of spirits and a skewed impression of what’s funny. Still there are very few anime movies or shows that I have seen and don’t at least place value in.

Merry Christmas asshole!!

Tokyo Godfathers is in my opinion, a valuable cultural masterpiece. Despite adult subject matter, it is a luminous film for family audiences that has more to say about the good of human nature than say A Christmas Story, Bad Santa or even It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Unlike those films, which drown you in nostalgia or confounds with snark, Tokyo Godfather brings you into a bleak world to show you how much light there is if you only look. This Christmas instead of the usual fare, check out Tokyo Godfathers instead.

Final Grade: A