Tekkonkinkreet (2006)
"Tekkon kinkurîto" (original title)

In Treasure Town, life can be both peaceful and violent. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White - two street kids who claim to traverse the urban city as if it were their ... See full summary »

Director:

Michael Arias

Writers:

Taiyo Matsumoto (comic), Anthony Weintraub

Stars:

Kazunari Ninomiya, Yû Aoi, Yûsuke Iseya

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kazunari Ninomiya	...	Kuro / Itachi (voice)
Yû Aoi	...	Shiro (voice)
Yûsuke Iseya	...	Kimura (voice)
Kankurô Kudô	...	Sawada (voice)
Min Tanaka	...	Suzuki (voice)
Rokurô Naya	...	Jiccha (voice)
Tomomichi Nishimura	...	Fujimura (voice)
Mugihito	...	Kumicho (voice)
Nao Ohmori	...	Chocola (voice)
Yoshinori Okada	...	Vanilla (voice)
Kazuko Kurosawa	...	Kozo (voice)
Tomoko Murakami	...	Kozo (voice)
Miyuki Ôshima	...	Kozo (voice)
Yuki Tamaki	...	Asa (voice) (as Yukiko Tamaki)
Mayumi Yamaguchi	...	Yoru (voice)

Storyline

In Treasure Town, life can be both peaceful and violent. This is never truer than for our heroes, Black and White - two street kids who claim to traverse the urban city as if it were their own. But in this town, an undercurrent of evil exists and has its sights set on the pair of brothers, forcing them to engage in battle with an array of old-world Yakuza as well as dangerous assassins vying to rule the decaying metropolis, Treasure Town.

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Plot Keywords:

city | yakuza | street child | police | save the neighborhood | 

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Crime

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some violent and disturbing images, and brief sexuality

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

23 December 2006 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Tekkonkinkreet

Box Office

Budget:

$4,200,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aniplex, Asmik Ace Entertainment, Beyond C.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min 103 min (without end titles)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

In the scene where Black gives money to "grandpa" the yin-yang symbol changes from white on top, black on top and then again white on top.

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Quotes

Kuro: This is my town.

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Crazy Credits

The seed Black and White talk about through most of the film grows into a flower during the ending credits.

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Connections

References Gojira (1954)

User Reviews

The Cat's Meow

Hyperknetic animation helps along a sometimes too sprawling narrative of homeless street kids White and Black who leap from building to building in the neon streets of Treasure Town.

Treasure Town looks like an abandoned psychedelic amusement park that's been over run with urban sprawl (which is pretty much the center theme of the film, the lose of balance, lose of innocence, illustrated through the symbolically named White and Black). Actually almost all of the characters have names reflecting some kind of duality, "Choco" and "Vanilla", "Dusk" and "Dawn" etc.

Black is the muscle, somber and always ready to fight to defend "his town" While White is the more innocent, slightly brain damaged younger of the two who can't dress himself but can leap from the backs of moving cars, like la parkour runners bitten by radioactive spiders. "Chinese Monkeys can ride clouds" White states at the beginning of the film, referencing certain aspects of China's mythic "Journey To The West", before they begin their matrix leaps/gliding across the city. The first ten minutes of which, are the best moments in the movie(and no it is never explained how they can fly, leap, fight as they do, so much so it's easy to forget how vulnerable as children they are, which is used to get effect).

The trouble comes when there's too many Yakuza characters given too much back story, too much over inflated psychodrama with Black attempting to rid himself of his solitary monster like Minetaur persona (this time a Greek myth of the bull monster locked in the labyrinth), and not enough explanation of who the mysterious villain was, who were his henchmen refereed to as both "killing machines" and "aliens" more than once, and what if any connection did he have to re-developing the town, killing the kids, his mission from God, and the mysterious organization who lent him the monsters? That being said, I was emotionally absorbed into the film enough by that point, and satisfied with the unique fluidity and vividness of the color palettes, to ignore the weaker points of plot, til the movie was over. Enjoyable and unique anime, but like so many it reaches for seriousness, when whimsy would be a better fit.