A 13-week-soap-opera's-worth of plot, coincidence, and flapdoodle, with wild shifts in tone without snapping under the stress, and engaging themes, striking art, and a mixture of hyperbole and understatement that makes me green with envy. Christmas-New-Year's themes, homeless people, gangs, car crashes, cute and brute, haiku, and sweet sap.
I became enthusiastic for Japanese animated films years ago... mostly for science-fiction, robots, florid fantasy, and lurid action-opera. That stuff mostly embarrasses me nowadays, except for brief flourishes of style and color. Miyasaki's animation still charms, however [eg, SPIRITED AWAY and PRINCESS MONONOKE]. And now Satoshi Kon. I've seen two other films of his, both odd, remarkable flights of fantasy... PERFECT BLUE and MILLENNIUM ACTRESS. These two show their anime roots. TOKYO GODFATHER, on the other hand, is a modern melodrama, with only the lightest touches of fantasy... stock stereotypes exaggerated into grand scale by a VERY vigorous plot. Light-hearted and satisfying... at time, elegant and touching.
This is a fine candidate for a Rolston movie night... the sort of film most folks wouldn't think to see, and would be pleasantly surprised and charmed by.
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