Tôkyô goddofâzâzu / Tokyo Godfathers (2003) – 3/5

Not a godlike movie, but makes for a good time, especially in winter

„Tokyo Godfathers“ or „Tôkyô goddofâzâzu“ (kinda funny translation) is a Japanese award-winning animated movie from 2003, so this one will have its 20th anniversary next year and that makes it a bit sad to see that the two people who created this one are dead and gone already. The big name behind the project is Satoshi Kon and he died over a decade ago already, quite a bit under the age of 50. He was the writer and director here and it was not his last film for the big screen (that would be „Paprika“), but his penultimate movie if you want to call it that. Kon’s co-writer here was Keiko Nobumoto, who has worked on another classic („Akira“) in a less important position, but here she really contributed a lot. She died in December 2021 a few years before her 60th birthday, so she basically became a decade older than Kon, but still did not reach a really old age. The base story was created early in the 20th century from what I learned today and comes from America originally. There is nothing particularly American about this one here though. Anime through and through really. This is not a very long film: It crosses the 1.5-hour mark, but only does so during the closing credits. For pretty much the entire film you could wonder why they are called Godfathers, but in the end there is the explanation and it was a pretty sweet revelation. I could hear several „ooohs“ from the crowd, especially the female viewers because this revelation added some decent heart to the story and also rewarded those otherwise unfortunate protagonists. They went through so much in their lives. But before I get to the plot and talk a bit more about the story, let me say that I cannot elaborate on the voice actors. I watched the film with the original Japanese-language audio (and English subtitles), but I am not familiar with the cast. As much as I can be a judge there, the voices sounded adequate and fit the characters.

It was no coincidence that this film aired four days before Christmas at a movie theater again because this is somewhat Christmas-themed. It was funny to listen to a really familiar Christmas tune in the Japanese language at the very start. At the end, namely during the closing credits, we then hear a very famous classical tune that usually does not come with vocals, but here it did and it was a fairly funny rendition. So the music, also away from the soundtrack, is already a success here. The story is fine too. We have three homeless characters. One is a man, another is a woman and the third is something in-between. From this perspective, you can also say that this is a fairly progressive film for its time as it shows us a man in woman’s clothing as one of the key characters and (s)he is maybe the most likable character you will find in this movie. The three title characters are all pretty much likable in their own right though, even if they lie about their wife and daughter being deceased, but at least in the end they admit it was a lie. You could say that one story of a homeless man in here is basically a father-daughter story told from the older one’s perspective while the homeless female’s background is a father-daughter story told from the woman’s point of view. Those do have parallels. And as for the third character, he did not have his biological mother take good care of him, so he basically grew up with the help of another character between male and female and there is also a heartfelt reunion between these two. But despite all these complicated lives and personal backgrounds, the core story in this film is connected to a seemingly abandoned baby that the trio finds in the snow. So they take care of it until they find the baby’s mother or who they mistake for the baby’s mother. Eventually, there is a real happy ending though when the kid is reunited with the actual parents and the three are picked as the baby’s godfathers. The woman who lied about being the mother has her own tragic fate however. So you cannot really be too mad at her ether for this lie and abduction because she clearly needs psychological support. You can maybe be a bit mad at her for trying to kill not only herself, but also almost kill the baby this way. In the end, they both survive.

Really many people survived from dangerous situations. Take the guy who takes three gunshots to his belly/chest. Now that is almost a miracle. Take the woman and daughter linked to the male protagonist that we thought were both dead. Take said male protagonist himself who ends up in a really dangerous, kind of life-threatening situation even if he loses conscience during these temperatures, take the shemale who ends up in hospital towards the end. They also all recover so quickly that it maybe did not feel too realistic. Another aspect that did not feel too realistic in this film was the element of unlikely events happening all the time. I will just list a few. The female title character seeing her father in the train. Said character running into her father again at the very end in the hospital. The trio finding the baby in the first place. The male title character running into his daughter at the emm.. hospital again? The gang being there at the same place where this assassination attempt happens, one that would normally be in the news for days if not weeks. The trio, especially the male/female character running into the driver again when they are about to chase down the pretender. There is probably more. Oh yes, there is. I forgot the truck that crashes into the building when they had just moved outside. What are the chances? So yeah, you will surely find flaws with this film if you take a closer look here. And not just a few. What I just mentioned is also a bit disappointing because in general you can say that, unlike other works by Kon, this film is intended to be realistic and without supernatural elements. Some of these scenes also result in comedic moments. Like with all animes, even the more dramatic ones, there are segments and inclusions that will make you laugh. The first comment the male/female character makes towards this driver was kinda funny. Another moment linked to him/her that is about being abandoned was hilarious too when another character (that we know nothing about) agrees with this statement, but does not realize it was not even meant to describe his character at all.

I will mention more moments that made me and/or other audience members smile or even laugh: The fight sequence between the male and female protagonists before they find the baby was funny. What they say to each other. The moment when one character suspects another character to be dead and how (s)he reacts when (s)he sees it is another character instead was also kinda funny. The male protagonist finally grabbing a bike as if he was indeed a cyclist and also handling a few situations as if he was indeed an action film hero was kinda nice. The dying man I just mentioned grabbing the bottle one last time before he departs was also supposed to take some emotional gravity out of this scene. One inclusion of the famous „Ode to Joy“ („Freude, schöner Götterfunken“) in a very exaggerated manner brought some laughs. In general, exaggeration was something that was the basis for a lot of the comedy here. Or take the moment when they run again into the driver or chauffeur from early on. Or one of my favorite moments was when they are near a graveyard and the male protagonist says something how he is not dead yet. So there was also some dark comedy in here. You do not have to wait for the next laugh for a long time. It always comes pretty quickly, even if I understand why most would not categorize this as a comedy film. Some of the other contents are just too serious for that. But still, it is a film that will also win you over maybe during the moments when it puts a smile on your lips. Maybe those were even better written than the drama attached to the film as a whole.

And there was a lot of drama for sure. I already mentioned many twists in here. One inclusion I did not get at all was the assassination attempt I talked about early on. Apparently, it was linked in a way to gang crime and I can see why it was included plot-wise, namely to get the baby (and the female protagonist) to a woman who could give actual breast milk to the baby and also in terms of the male protagonist that he understands it is not (only) the man to blame there who gets hit by the bullets. Not the (only) one to blame for the protagonist’s messed-up life. He realizes this in the end and lets go, but when he sees him again for the first time, he is really ready to kill him himself before it all escalates with the murder attempt that actually shows us how this allegedly bad and ruthless guy is totally ready to risk his own life to save the life of the man he is obliged to protect. So now he is a real professional still (or again), but in a totally positive sense this time. Anyway, this plot then totally vanishing from the film left me a bit confused. Oh yeah, another somewhat funny moment was when the male/female character slapped the woman who wanted to take the baby from her and at this point they did not know yet she was a fraud. So looking back at what we know now, we cannot be too mad at the shemale for hitting her then I suppose. Of course, it was also in a way sweet in terms of this between-the-genders character’s mother instinct and actually she was not too different then from the fake mother, with the exception of course that the latter was more damaged because of her loss. And also hurt others more as a consequence, namely the real parents. I am personally glad I watched this film today and that I could go see it on the big screen. I was also glad to see the really large theater pretty packed and so many seats taken. Old films keep attracting big audiences and will do so for a long time. I would not say this was a great film, but a good one that is worth a watch, especially during the holidays. Thumbs-up.