Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

PG-13, for language mostly.  Some of that language tip-toes into hate speech. Admittedly, some of this messy speech is between friends.  Still, it does kind of use of some of that language and I can't deny that there's a bit of stigma to what is said.  There's also some sexual references, but nothing overtly sexual on screens.  There's some violence, involving death, and drug references as well.  It does really ride the fine line between PG-13 and R.  Still, it's PG-13!

DIRECTORS:  Shogo Furuya and Satoshi Kon

I should be writing my book right now.  Christmas break is hard for writing because really good writing, from my limited experiences, is built on the foundation of momentum.  Do you know what is really bad for writing?  Constant interruptions.  So if you have noticed me knocking out a fair amount of blogs, be aware that I'm more okay with my blog being hot trash versus something that is going to be published.  For those people who wish that my blog was given a bit more effort, I genuinely apologize for the trash I submit on the reg.  It's because it tends to get non-stop broken up by a baby doing something that she shouldn't be doing.

Instagram gave me my best gift the other day.  I got an Instagram reel in my feed that was "The Top 10 Holiday Classics You've Never Heard of."  If you don't get the central conceit, these are movies that are amazing and should be Christmas classics, but have somehow fallen under the radar.  I had heard of Tokyo Godfathers, but had no real desire to watch it.  It was just one of those films that I thought that anime nerds really liked.  I've always been hesitant to jump into anime.  Most anime has burned me with the exception of Studio Ghibli stuff.  Do you know what I always complain about?  I always say that "comic books are not a genre; they are a medium." Yet, I seem to treat anime as a genre.  So, Tokyo Godfathers fell under the radar over time.  But I watched the Reel and the movie looked incredible.  And do you know what?  Absolutely nailed it.  Honestly, it might be one of my favorite movies of the year.  There's one beat that doesn't resonate with me, but that's a pretty good record all things considering.

Tokyo Godfathers is one of those movies that is so inherently Christmas, but I can imagine that people might be pulling a Die Hard and claiming it isn't a Christmas movie.  For those people who need my two cents on if Die Hard is a Christmas movie, the answer is "I don't care.  The bigger issue is that you are using Die Hard as a Christmas movie to show how wacky and unique you are when everyone is also playing the same card."  If you need Die Hard to be a Christmas movie, by all means.  Just don't be loud at parties about it.  I want to argue that Tokyo Godfathers is a nearly perfect Christmas movie.  While the tenets of Christmas may be playing in the background as opposed to the central story, tonally Tokyo Godfathers does a heck of a job establishing that it should be considered a Christmas film.  First of all, I've always maintained that Christmas movies should be bleak.  They shouldn't stay bleak.  But we need to get to some pretty dark places before we are allowed to enter the light.  Tokyo Godfathers is critical as heck about who we are as people to allow homelessness to be a societal ill that we allow to happen.  It does that thing that a good Nativity story does and reminds us that the ones who are struggling are just as human as the well-off, if not more so.

When these three find this child, there isn't really a consideration that this baby should be left to freeze to death.  God knows that these three are struggling just to make it through the day.  Yet, the trio, despite disagreeing on the proper way to care for this baby, are all on the same page that they need to do something to ensure that this baby is alright.  It's one of those stories, like It's a Wonderful Life, that reminds us that the moral thing in life is rarely easy.  As George Bailey has to sacrifice his dreams to save the town from Potter, Gin, Hana, and Miyuki have to squander what little resources they have to take care of this child.  And like It's a Wonderful Life, it's hard for them to see how much better off they are for embracing this child.  The three of them care for each other from moment one.  But the three of them grow closer and closer throughout the film (despite getting wildly upset with one another)  because they have a shared love for this child that needs a parent once again.  On top of that, the stakes get to be astronomical.  Every two seconds, it feels like this kid is about to die.  The news that they get seemingly gets worse.  As much as they want to find the family of this kid, they understand that maybe people only look nice on the outside.  The idea is almost thrust upon the audience that these three, despite having nothing more to give, would make better parents than Kiyoko's actual parents would have.

But if it only takes two seconds to make the next logical leap, it's two seconds well spent.  Tokyo Godfathers does not paint a lovely view of humanity.  The trio is treated terribly everywhere they go.  Their circle of friends tend to be people who live morally dubious lifestyles.  They go to some shady places for information.  And the people who consider themselves good people?  Their lives aren't exactly cherry pie.  The original Kiyoko, Gin's daughter, is marrying a man that she doesn't seem at all attracted to.  She's doing it, seemingly, for money.  The guy's a bit of a punk too, despite being a doctor.  The world of Tokyo Godfathers is  a bit too much like our world.  It's a cruel world.  Clearly, people have made the world cruel.  But there's another step to be taken.  As much as it is a criticism of society, Tokyo Godfathers, like good Christmas movies should be, is a celebration of the individual.  Call it transcendentalism, if you will, but this is saying that people, when crossing a bridge between choosing the easy path and doing good in opposition to the stream, will choose the morally right action.  Yeah, people have dark times.  Hana rips into Gin for being a degenerate gambler.  Baby Kiyoko's mother and father are either broken or terrible human beings.  But it doesn't stop the fact that these three, who have nothing to give, keep giving of themselves to make sure that this baby has a chance at a normal life.

There would have been an easy gag.  Western movies would have had the character arc of doing all of this for money, only to give up the money for the greater happiness of the child.   I mean, I'm not saying that Tokyo Godfathers doesn't hit on  some of the tropes of homelessness.  But the three feel authentic to the point where my heart broke quite a few times from what they went through.  Yes, because this is animated, there are some larger than life things that happen, particularly with Hana.  But this is a story woven with verisimilitude.  While there are larger than life moments, at its core, it is a human story through and through.  It's a damning story of how a part of our society is ignored  for the sake of convenience.  And the movie doesn't shy away from how people view the lowest castes of society.  There are moments where they are dismissed simply because they are destitute.  This is a story that should have a moderate to easy solve.  (Admittedly, Hana's stubbornness is one of the reasons that there is a problem at all, but that also feels oddly forgivable.) 

I did say that there was one moment that went too far.  The end was almost perfect.  Honestly, that chase between the trio and the false mother was harrowing.  The fact that this woman, suicidal, is rushing towards a ledge holding the baby is a lot.  Miyuki's confrontation with the mother as a news helicopter circles overhead is anxiety inducing.  When the woman goes over, Miyuki, the smallest of the three, holds on for dear life to save the woman and the child.  I can even forgive if the movie hit the trope of the three of them holding each other as they form a daisy chain leading to safety.  But when the baby goes over and Hana has to ride a tarp to the bottom as a breeze turns the banner into a makeshift parachute?  A step too far.  It doesn't kill the movie for me, but it is just so close to perfection.  I don't even mind if Hana is holding onto a banner and emergency response teams has to get them down.  I like that.  But the parachute?  It's a bit much.

Still, Tokyo Godfathers might have proven to be one of my favorite movies this year.  I think I'm building a perfect alternative Christmas classics list with this and The Holdovers.  These movies understand that the reason that we celebrate Christ's birth this time of year is that it is physically the darkest and seemingly the most hopeless.  But we celebrate humanity when we stand up to the darkness and find the beauty in each other.  I adore this so much.  Top notch movie.  I'm recommending it all around.