Tokyo!

Tokyo! (2008) an omnibus film with short features from some of contemporary cinema’s brightest stars (Michael Gondry, Leo Carax, and Joon-ho Bong) seemed like a good idea. I had high expectations which were not met. I think all three directors used Tokyo locations well, but the stories they choose to tell were not that compelling to me. The first story, “Interior Design,” was another quirky story from Gondry that finds a couple moving to Tokyo and staying with a childhood friend while they try to get settled. The male in the relationship is an avante garde filmmaker with Gondrian-like tendencies. The female is somewhat lost and eventually transforms into a chair. The whimsical like tone was a bit overpowering but perhaps my favorite part. Leo Carax’s section, “Merde” (or shit), was the least appealing to me (or shittiest). Dennis Levant plays a misanthropic creature that lives in Tokyo’s sewers eating flowers and currency as he attacks people. He is put on trial and sentenced to death, which he seems to escape in the end in a set piece that calls to mind Oshima’s Death by Hanging . Bong’s section, “Shaking Tokyo ,“ has some nice moments, but the fact that it focuses on a hikikmori or shut in or recluse is far from appealing concept for me. The recluse is drawn out into the world by his interest in a female pizza deliverer who also becomes a shut in. I can’t help thinking that this was a missed opportunity to make a statement about Tokyo and Japan’s appeal-but it feels like a superficial and narcissistic look at a vibrant city.