Title: Tokyo Godfathers (ゴッドファーザーズ, Tōkyō Goddofāzāzu)
Type: film/anime
Creator: Satoshi Kon
Animators: Kenichi Konishi, Satoshi Kon
Studio: Madhouse
Language of Origin: Japanese
Version Reviewed: Japanese voice with English subtitles
Genre: drama/action/comedy
Release Year: 2003
Recommended Age: mature
Number of Episodes: -
Length: ~92 minutes
Voice Actors: Tooru Emori, Yoshiaki Umegami, Aya Okamoto, Asami Seto
Main Characters: Gin, Hana, Miyuki, Kiyoko
** SPOILERS! BEWARE!!! **
This film opens on Christmas Eve in Tokyo. The focus is on an ornamental nativity-scene baby Jesus in a manger. Two of the main characters are introduced, Gin and Hana. They are attending a nativity play.
Gin's story is that he was once married, and was a professional bicycle racer. He'd gotten a girl pregnant when he was twenty years old, and their child became very sick. Medical bills piled up, and Gin made a deal with a business man. In exchange for money, to relieve the burden of his debts, he was to sabotage the upcoming bicycle race he would compete in. Gin got caught in the scheme, his child died, and his wife died soon after. He became homeless in his thirties, and has been homeless ever since. Gin has a grouchy and stern demeanor, but his heart peeks through from time to time.
Hana's history is that he was born to a mother, who left him on the streets. At some point, he began singing and performing as a woman in a club. And after an incident with a male customer in the club, he felt he could not return to work. This eventually led him once again to hard times, and a return to life on the streets.
Hana's dreamed of becoming a mother, and he believes a miracle of birth could deliver him a baby somehow, like the Virgin Mary. He is a man who feels in his heart he is a woman. Hana has a thoughtful and kind demeanor, which shows through when he's around Gin, Miyuki, and others. He also has a flair for dramatics.
Gin and Hana line up outside of a church for dinner, after the nativity play and sermon finish. In another area, a girl is spitting on unsuspecting people, from high up on a rooftop. The girl's name is Miyuki, the third member of the homeless trio. She is about sixteen years old, and she left home because she thinks her father did something to her pet cat, Angel. She stabbed her father with a knife and left home. Miyuki is a typical teenager in that she is generally annoyed with everything and everyone, but secretly she is trying to deal with a lot of emotions and regrets.
Gin and Hana bring food for Miyuki, and Hana tells her to have better manners with how she eats and sits. Gin and Miyuki have a spat with one another, like usual, and Hana has to separate them.
Later in the night, while going through a pile of discarded miscellaneous items next to a building, on a hunt for gifts, the homeless trio hear a baby crying. Amongst the things, they find an abandoned baby, which is a reminder to Hana of his own past filled with abandonment.
Gin reasons it would be best to give the baby to the police. Hana breaks down crying because he feels that if they were to hand the baby over to the police, Christmas would be ruined for the entirety of the baby's life. Hana settles on keeping the baby until "tomorrow". The following morning there is a change of plans. Hana worries about the baby going from foster home to foster home, and considers the possibility that he could be a better mother than the baby's original mother. To him, the only way to disprove this logic is to find the mother, and confront her about her reasons for leaving the baby. Hana finds a locker key with the numbers "1225" on it. This is their first clue to finding the baby's mother.
One coincidence or fated moment after another delivers a steady journey of development and self-discovery for the homeless trio.
Hana is checked into a hospital when she faints from almost being run over by an ambulance that drives into the side of a convenience store wall. At the hospital, Gin runs into his daughter, Kiyoko, and that's where it's revealed that Gin's wife and daughter hadn't died at all. It angers Hana that Gin lied to him, so he leaves the hospital with baby Kiyoko and Miyuki.
As Hana and Miyuki are walking around, with baby Kiyoko in Hana's arms, they notice a woman who is about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. They run to her and Miyuki quickly grabs the woman, saving her from falling and dying. The woman is Sachiko. Hana and Miyuki recognize her from a photo clue they found earlier. While struggling to free herself from Miyuki, Sachiko sees baby Kiyoko and lunges for the baby. Hana slaps her. Sachiko, in tears, explains that her husband took the baby away from her when she wasn't looking. Hana gives the baby over to Sachiko, and the woman walks away, promising to never leave the baby again.
A picture found in Sachiko's bag in a locker leads Gin to Sachiko's drunken, debt-ridden husband. He confesses to Gin that he left a baby out in the cold, a baby that Sachiko brought home. He says the baby isn't his. The man informs Gin that Sachiko lied. Gin then rushes to relay the news to the others.
Gin reaches the others and tells them the news. Upon realizing their mistake in believing Sachiko to be baby Kiyoko's mother, the homeless trio rush to chase after Sachiko, to get baby Kiyoko back. The trio find the two and give chase. The chase ends with Sachiko on top of a building ready to jump and take her own life, again, but with baby Kiyoko in her arms this time.
Sachiko confesses to Miyuki that her baby died, and she wanted to die as well. She saw all of the other healthy babies at the hospital. One in particular smiled up at her and she stole it.
Sachiko jumps off the ledge of the building with baby Kiyoko in her arms, but Miyuki grabs her just as she does so. The three of them are hanging off the edge. Miyuki slips, and Sachiko, baby Kiyoko, and Miyuki start to fall, but Gin grabs Miyuki, saving them. Sachiko loses her grip on baby Kiyoko, and baby Kiyoko falls. Hana slides down the side of the building, and catches baby Kiyoko. Hana loses his footing, and grabs onto the banner on the side of the building. It breaks away, but before he and the baby fall to their deaths, a gust of wind miraculously blows upwards, creating a kind of parachute with the banner, and they are slowly carried to the ground with police and other spectators watching the whole thing from the street below. Baby Kiyoko is finally given back to her real mother and father.
The homeless trio are checked into a hospital, after the whole ordeal of the baby kidnapping is resolved. Gin asks Miyuki to get him a cigarette. She does, and in doing so, a bag falls from Gin's coat pocket. The bag was given to Gin by an old man (who Gin helped out hours before, but the old man ended up dying). There was a scene earlier in the film in which a television program displayed winning lottery ticket numbers. These numbers match a lottery ticket hanging out of the bag which falls from Gin's coat pocket. If Gin finds the winning lottery ticket, he will become a rich man. (He may not, though, as he was shown earlier being frustrated by having another lottery ticket, which was a losing ticket. It's possible that Kon is pointing out Gin's penchant for gambling, and how it has not subsided over time. This could lead to history repeating itself whether the lottery ticket is found and pays off or not.)
The final event that happens is that an investigator comes into the homeless trio's hospital room, informing them that the baby's parents would like to thank them. It is then revealed that the investigator is Miyuki's father.
Hana talks to Gin about the miracle of becoming pregnant, like the Virgin Mary, while she's in line to receive food. A soup-kitchen lady overhears this, and is shocked by the idea. Later in the film, the same soup-kitchen lady is coming down an escalator. She sees Hana with a baby in her arms, only then believing that a miracle has happened.
The date of Christmas, 12/25, is recurrently shown in different ways throughout the film; on the locker key, when Hana calls for the same taxi that picked up Miyuki and her kidnapper, taxi number 12-25, Sachiko and her husband's new address, Shinkocho 1-2-25, and 12250 yen for the taxi fare after Hana finds Miyuki and baby Kiyoko. A more hidden occurrence is at the 12:25 minute mark in the film, when Gin says "I was in heaven." 12/25 is Christmas Day, the day that the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated. Perhaps Satoshi Kon drew a parallel and attempted to bridge a cultural gap by framing the story with a western holiday and highlighting the theme of repentance as it appears in Christianity. This could be a rare, honest and pure instance in Gin's fabricated storytelling, where he takes a moment to reflect on his past. A simple, powerful sentiment.
Hana names the baby Kiyoko, which means pure (kiyo=pure), for the purest of nights, Christmas Eve. Gin's daughter is named Kiyoko, and so is Ōta's daughter. Ōta is a man the homeless trio saved. He accidently got stuck under his car when it rolled on top of him after he forgot to set the park brake.
Hana barely misses being hit by a car as she's talking about evil parents not caring for their children.
Hana, Kiyoko, Gin, and Miyuki are on a train that gets stopped by heavy snowfall (they are on their way to find the hostess club where they think baby Kiyoko's mother works). Miyuki sees her father in the other train car, and she runs away. When Gin and Hana follow Miyuki through the snow, they end up meeting Ōta. Ōta helps the homeless trio out by giving them some money, and figures out that his soon-to-be son-in-law is the owner of the hostess club they are looking for. The son-in-law is also the same man who proposed a get-rich-quick scheme to Gin, years before.
The trio find formula and a baby bottle for baby Kiyoko just as they need it, in addition to a bag of diapers, left on a grave, in a graveyard, as a respectful offering to the dead.
The bar owner, who worked with Hana years ago, is the one who takes Gin in after he is beaten up by some violent youths. Hana goes to see his old friend, who was like a mother to him, and is happily surprised to find Gin there, alive.
Gin told lies about his daughter and wife dying. Gin finds out his daughter is about to marry a man who actually lost his daughter to sickness, and his wife died, too.
Miyuki found a cat, months before, and she named her Angel, which is referenced on the cab that helps the homeless trio out on two occasions. The cab driver's vehicle has wings on the roof and an "A" for the taxi company's logo. The taxi driver looks a bit like Hana's lover, Ken, who died years ago.
Satoshi Kon is revered as an important artistic force, and his work is noted as being the source of inspiration for many. He died rather young.
What I have witnessed of Satoshi Kon's creative work, I view as unique and provacative, though not always what may be considered "enjoyable" or "easy". Tokyo Godfathers balances between unique and enjoyable. It is a seamless weave of the complexities of modern society. A narrative web of class system, humility, forgiveness, miracles, and family.
There is very little music in this, so not much to comment on. None of the character voice work is annoying or inappropriate. The voices fit their personas well.
The art style is excellent. There's much detail and it's well thought through. The frames of animation for the character's movements and emotions are effectively illustrated. The color palette is earthy. This grounds the subconscious and brings to mind a feeling of home and the weight of reality.
This film is a wonderful artful expression, and an accurate, careful, insightful observation. The viewer is imbued with hope and the possibility to start anew, even in what may seem to be the most dire of circumstances. An easy recommendation to almost anyone.
There is a sequence which begins at the 42:22 minute mark and ends at ~42:24. It's an abrupt and brief shift in Hana's facial appearance. It could easily be missed, or could be perceived as a mistake made unintentionally by the illustrators. The dialogue makes a reference to "hell". What could it mean, if anything?
