Episode 743 - Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

Hi everyone!

Happy Thursday! We’re welcoming back Christina Eldridge to the podcast with a review of the latest offering from GKIDS, a remastered cut of 2003’s critically acclaimed TOKYO GODFATHERS. We’re lucky to have Christina’s long-term love of anime on board here. For a few other recent reviews, check out RIDE YOUR WAVE (Episode #722), KLAUS (Episode #708), and her debut review for WEATHERING WITH YOU (Episode #687).

Before the review, we’ll have a promo from our friends at the Pop Pour Review podcast! Every week, the PPR crew review a film, then craft a cocktail based on the movie. I don’t drink myself, but I know a few people that do, and every recipe fits in surprising ways. You can find them on Twitter and Instagram @poppourreview, or by searching for Pop! Pour! Review Podcast on Facebook. Thanks for all your support last year!

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Here we go!

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<< POP POUR REVIEW PROMO >>

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Hello, everyone!

This is Christina Eldridge with Durara Reviews (a part of One Movie Punch). Since my last review of RIDE YOUR WAVE (2019), I’ve been house hunting so wish me luck! If you’re not already following me @Durarareview, or @OneMoviePunch, go do it! I promise to continue to bring you the latest and greatest of anime movies!

Today’s movie review is for TOKYO GODFATHERS (2003). This is one of my personal favorite Christmas movies. Satoshi Kon directed this classic comedy/drama. It was produced by one of the mainstays of anime, Madhouse, and is currently distributed to the United States by GKIDS. TOKYO GODFATHERS is about three homeless people who find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve and decide to find the mother rather than take her to the cops as to avoid the foster system.

This review is spoiler free.

Gin (Toru Emori) is a middle-aged homeless man who loves to drink. He survives with Hana (Yoshiaki Umegaki), a former drag queen club star who now lives as a trans woman, and Miyuki (Aya Okamoto), a high school aged runaway. The three attend a Christmas Eve play and a soup kitchen together, then decide to look for books in the garbage. While digging, they hear the crying of a baby and discover an infant girl with a note asking to take care of her. They also find a bag containing photos, business cards, and a locker key. The only person in the threesome who is excited about this discovery is Hana, as she would never be able to have children on her own. Gin tries to talk her into giving the child to the police, but Hana refuses, as she was a product of the foster system herself. She elects to find the baby’s mother from the clues in the bag instead. The three set out on a journey that takes them not only on an adventure, but on a discovery of themselves and why they really are on the street, rather than the false images they have given each other, no matter how horrifying or shameful these reasons really are.

Satoshi Kon is one of anime’s most celebrated directors. He is responsible for such masterpieces as PERFECT BLUE (1997), which is one of my all-time favorites, PAPRIKA (2006), MILLENIUM ACTRESS (2001), and the series PARANOIA AGENT (2004). Kon-san’s favorite theme of blurred reality combined with fantasy is present in most of his works, even TOKYO GODFATHERS (2003), although it is not as apparent. Kon-san’s artistic directing style has been copied by other directors, most notably, Darren Aronofsky. In REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000), Aronofsky acknowledged the shot-for-shot bathtub scene from PERFECT BLUE (1997) but denies that BLACK SWAN (2010) is in any way adapted from it. Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION (2010) was also accused of being an off-shoot of PAPRIKA (2006), that includes plot similarities, specific scenes and characters, to which he denied. To public knowledge, Kon-san never took legal action on either of the directors, assuming the ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’ moniker instead.

The film was released in North America by Sony Pictures on December 29th, 2003 in an attempt to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, but it was unsuccessful. The domestic release brought in a total of $128,985 and the International release brought in a total $480,540. GKIDS’s re-release will include a 4K restoration and a new English dub.

TOKYO GODFATHERS is an unwilling adventure of three friends who depend on each other for survival by homelessness. Finding an abandoned baby together forces them to not only care for someone else, but for themselves through self-discovery, and to confront the lies they tell themselves in order to maintain their status quo. This movie will make you laugh, make you cry and, most importantly, make you think.

Rotten Tomatoes: 90% (CERTIFIED FRESH)

Metacritic: 73 

One Movie Punch: 10/10 Children Loved By God

TOKYO GODFATHERS (2003) is rated PG-13 and will be re-released in select theaters on March 9th and March 11th.

Minasan, domo arigatou! Be on the lookout for my next review of the Wuxia action packed film SHADOW (YING) (2018) later this month. This time, I promise!

Until next time!