Tokyo Godfathers, directed by Satoshi Kon, gives an interesting take on more conventional Christmas movies as it not only takes place in Japan, but it doesn’t really focus on presents, Christmas carols, or other typical customs we have in the west. Instead, it focuses on togetherness and kindness despite how lonely and cruel the world can be while living on the streets. While I stumbled upon this movie accidentally, I couldn’t help but admire how the director showcases Christmas in a different light, looking past the commercialism and really honing in on themes of humanity and finding love and hope, even in the most unlikely of places.
The Plot
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The plot is fairly simple. The film takes place on Christmas Eve in Tokyo. Three homeless people discover a newborn baby in the trash. There’s Hana, a trans woman whose dream has always been to start a family and sees the child as a Christmas miracle. Miyuki, a teenage girl that ran away from home and sees the baby as herself being another child let down by their parents. And Gin is an alcoholic gambler that lost his family and sees the child as a nuisance and insists on bringing it into the authorities. But beneath all this, the three end up finding a part of themselves they thought was lost while realizing how desperately they all really need each other as they practically have to go through hell to accomplish their ultimate goal of returning baby Kiyoko. |
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Comedic, Yet Sincere
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Since the film is fairly grounded in reality, it openly conveys the realities that homeless people face. Life is rough for these characters, and the film showcases both the physical and emotional cost that comes with their situation. The movie does a wonderful job of making the characters seem human. It didn’t come off as another cheesy film that makes the homeless seem wiser or nobler than the rest of the cast, but rather, it shows how these characters are flawed. But despite their shortcomings, they each have a redeeming warmth that brings a lot of joy into the film, giving it a fun and playful tone. You’d think a film about homeless people on Christmas would be depressing, but somehow it manages to keep just the right amount of light-heartedness. The film is both comical and sentimental, emphasizing the miracle of love and family in a world of harsh realities. You might have to be willing to suspend your disbelief and just watch it for what it is. Despite the simple plot, it showcases a deep, underlying meaning on how real people think and behave.
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Captivating Atmosphere
Upon watching this film, I found myself truly immersed in the setting and visuals, which made me feel like I was really living in Tokyo during Christmas. Simply put, the animation is incredible. The atmosphere may be gray and smoggy, but the artwork is just magnificent. The characters have expressions that show emotions, but in a subtle life-like way rather than one you’d attribute to an animation, giving it a further slant towards realism.
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When it snows in the film, it’s like you can almost taste it, and you can feel the stillness of the night. There’s this cold winter vibe that goes along with the feeling of being in the streets of Tokyo. It feels very nostalgic, even if you’ve never been there. Perhaps that’s because it's so similar to Home Alone 2 in its boisterous, family-like characters and big-city setting. It is an incredibly detailed world, leaving no stone left unturned. The smallest of details turn out to have a very specific purpose. Everything is seemingly connected through symbols and metaphors, making it very easy to get absorbed in this world’s inner workings and themes.
The Power of Coincidence
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The events of the film largely revolve around a series of coincidences, and yet, it all works so well. It’s not the typical plot device coincidence, but instead, it gives the sense of something greater at work. Perhaps it was the magic of Christmas that made these characters happen to be in the right place at the right time, allowing them to discover the baby. It’s basically a variation of the Three Wiseman story, but in modern day Tokyo. From a broader view of the plot outline, it’s a bit jarring just how much of this story is based on seemingly random coincidences.
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Yet, these moments feel well placed because they’re all rooted in the connections that the characters have formed with the other people. These coincidences aren’t solely a means of pushing the plot forward, but rather a reflection of the lives that these characters have lived. Almost as though their pasts and the people they’ve left behind over the years are finally catching up to them.he way that each character reacts to these events perfectly captures their mindsets towards their pasts. Gin lashes out at the man he borrowed money from because the loan ruined his life.Hana accepts her reunion with her foster parents with a huge show of emotion. Miyuki runs away almost immediately upon seeing her father.ll of it works towards crafting more intriguing and empathetic characters, and a more fleshed-out web of relationships amongst all of them.
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The Importance of Family
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While this theme can be found in the majority of Christmas movies, in Tokyo Godfathers, it serves as a motivator for basically every action in the film. Each of the characters has some family related issue that they struggle with, or more accurately an issue with their lack of family, as each of them have become disconnected from their families by the start of the film. Gin abandoned his wife and daughter in order to escape his debts and lies about his past so as not to face his own reality. Hana was abandoned by her birth mother and raised by someone else, whom she eventually left as well out of shame for her own actions as an adult. Miyuki stabs her own father in a fit of rage and runs away. All three of them are living with trauma that they have to work through as the film progresses, eventually bringing them closer to those whom they left behind. And yet, they’ve developed a real sense of comradery with each other in a way that almost mirrors a nuclear family, even though none of them are related.
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Even when they fight like cats and dogs, or when they feel so utterly defeated that they can’t move forward, they still find a way to come together in the end to support each other. What I found most interesting, however, was that the film never favors one type of family over the other. By the film’s end, all three of them have reunited with their original families and seem to have at least started the process of mending their relationships. Yet at the same time, the bond between the three of them is at its strongest. This makes it harder for them to accept that they’ll just disappear from each other's lives.The film’s position seems to be that any type of family is just as valid as the next, be it by blood or by choice. Whatever connections you make in life are ones that you should cherish and make an effort to mend when things go awry, especially if they’re with people who genuinely care about you.
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Final Thoughts
All in all, while I certainly didn’t expect it initially, Tokyo Godfathers turned out to be a truly marvelous and enjoyable film. From excellent comedic timing, to phenomenal character animation, to pitch perfect execution of raw emotion, it serves as a fantastic encapsulation of the joy, thankfulness, and spiritual generosity that we celebrate at this time of year. It presents an unfiltered, and truly broken series of family issues, and yet still manages to come out hopeful and uplifting. An unconventional holiday viewing full of imperfect characters, written with such empathy and care that I couldn’t help but love them.
STEPHANIE MURILLO
