Tokyo! (2008)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 110 minuten
Country:
France / Japan / Germany / South Korea
Directed by: Bong Joon Ho, Leos Carax and Michel Gondry
Stars: Ayako Fujitani, Yû Aoi and Teruyuki Kagawa
IMDb score:
7,0 (12.317)
Releasedate: 16 August 2008
Tokyo! plot
"Three tall tales. one big city."
Tokyo! shows an image of the Japanese capital, through three stories. "Interior Design" is about a young couple who move to Tokyo in search of a new future. The boy's goal is clear; he wants to be a director. Slowly the two grow apart and drown in the immensity of the city. The girl has another strange meeting; she turns into a chair. "Shaking Tokyo" is about a boy who is a hikikomori; someone who has said goodbye to all contact with the outside world. When a pizza delivery girl faints during an earthquake, the impossible happens; he falls in love with her. Will he take the difficult step of leaving the safe area of his apartment for the crowds on the streets of Tokyo? "Merde" is about a mysterious man who causes confusion in Tokyo by the irrational and provocative stunts he pulls. The media has dubbed him "the Monster of the Sewer". Will he be caught and brought to justice?
Actors and actresses
Hiroko (segment "Interior Design")
Akira (segment "Interior Design")
Akemi (segment "Interior Design")
Hiroshi (segment "Interior Design")
Takeshi (segment "Interior Design")
Car Pound Attendant (segment "Interior Design")
Merde' (segment "Merde")
Maître Voland (segment "Merde")
Advocate General (segment "Merde")
Prosecutor (segment "Merde")
Reviews & comments
Movsin
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- 8104 messages
- 8309 votes
Three imaginative stories that only have Tokyo as a common point of contact, although the search for decent housing and a job, crime and loneliness applies to all major cities.
Stories are each sufficiently fascinating and different in their own way that there is little point in comparing them.
What should be remembered, however, is the scene in which we are introduced to the character "Merde". That was stunningly beautiful film work. The scenes with the earthquakes are also good, as is the search for the towed car.
Billy-Pilgrim
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- 356 messages
- 620 votes
A nice collection of short films with Tokyo as the setting. I rarely watch short films, but maybe I should do it more often. Tokyo! I quite liked it. It's fun to see what three different directors do with a certain theme. Now Tokyo is big enough that people are still relatively free to go their own way. This may make you wonder what the connecting factors are between the films.
Gondry makes a typical Gondry story. A bit magical-realistic, with dreamy people and a nice atmosphere. However, I did not find the story very interesting and, as mentioned, it is not visually special either. It's fun to see what happens when Europeans write dialogue for the Japanese. During the whole movie I thought: Japanese people don't talk like that. (2.5*)
Carax is a new face for me. His film is definitely the most original and looks remarkably gritty. Very striking choice since Asian filmmakers usually go for the highest visual achievable. The film starts off nicely, but goes off the rails after Merde's capture. For a short film it still felt like it took a very long time. (2*)
I think Bong's entry stands head and shoulders above the rest. I haven't seen this gentleman's early work yet, but I have seen his more recent Snowpiercer and Okja. I have to say that this short work quite blew me away. This is mainly due to the fantastic smooth installation and the color palette. Of course Bong also has 2 top Japanese actors, which helps. Anyway, I think it's great that Bong manages to involve me emotionally in a short time and that he manages to make scenes in the cramped Japanese house dynamic. The best I've seen from Bong so far and the best of the three Tokyo! movies. (4*)
Fisico (moderator films)
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- 10009 messages
- 5398 votes
A collection of short films about Tokyo that goes in all directions. No Japanese directors behind the controls and perhaps partly because of that, you cannot really experience the atmosphere of Tokyo, with the exception of Bong.
The film goes in all directions and the quality or entertainment value suffers somewhat as a result. Bong is by far the best of the three with a special focus on the hikikomori where a man locks himself up and no longer seeks contact with the outside world. Very serene and poetic, including those pizza deliveries.
I found Carax's peculiar creature somewhat unconvincing and more of a caricature. It also started to bore and irritate me after twenty minutes.
I didn't really understand the clue from Gondry, although I did find the individualistic interplay of the couple interesting. The small house where they could stay temporarily and their search for their own place also reflects those typical cramped spaces where every square cm is used.
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