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Title: Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Tôru Emori | ... | Gin (voice) |
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Aya Okamoto | ... | Miyuki (voice) |
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Yoshiaki Umegaki | ... | Hana (voice) |
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Shôzô Îzuka | ... | Oota (voice) |
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Seizô Katô | ... | Mother (voice) |
| Hiroya Ishimaru | ... | Yasuo (voice) | |
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Ryûji Saikachi | ... | Aged Man (voice) |
| Yûsaku Yara | ... | Miyuki's Father (voice) | |
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Kyôko Terase | ... | Sachiko (voice) |
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Mamiko Noto | ... | Kiyoko, Gin's Daughter (voice) |
| Akio Ôtsuka | ... | Doctor (voice) | |
| Rikiya Koyama | ... | Bridegroom (voice) | |
| Satomi Kôrogi | ... | Kiyoko, the Gangster's Daughter (voice) | |
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Mitsuru Ogata | ... | Hidenari Ugaki (voice) |
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Chiyako Shibahara | ... | Eriko Kawasaki (voice) |
Christmas in Tokyo, Japan. Three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum. While foraging through some trash, they find an abandoned newborn. Hana, the transvestite with delusions of being a mother, convinces the others to keep it overnight. The next day, using a key found with the baby, they start tracking down the parents, with many adventures along the way. Written by Jon Reeves <jreeves@imdb.com>
Satoshi Kon's animation films are increasingly impressive with each new release. This movie is not only a technical masterpiece of the Japanese animation style, but can also rival a good independent live-action film in its storytelling. The film's plot also doubles as a social commentary about life on the fringe in Tokyo (not only the homeless but also cultural minority and the mentally disabled), from both the inside and the outside looking in. As a Westerner, I was astonished at how the homeless characters adapted to Japanese traditional practices for their survival.
The story of "Tokyo Godfathers" is much more compelling and heartwarming than Kon's previous films, "Perfect Blue" and "Milennium Actress", but the signature semi-realistic drawing style from his other films is still prominent. The discrepancies in movement between each character in the action sequences is particularly phenomenal. The backgrounds are intricate and perfectly painted. Note the art direction of the background buildings in some scenes to add even more connotation to the plot - sometimes they are more than what they seem!
Kon is the next Miyazaki, and I predict that he will continue to bring Japanese animation films to the international foreground years to come.