Why I Love “Tokyo Godfathers”
A Christmas Movie Review by Victor DeBonis
At the time of me writing this review, the end of 2024 is close. I have experienced a number of positive moments with several great ones having occurred. On the other side of this, however, the year will more likely be remembered by me (and, from what I have understood, some others) as a conflicting and less-than-positive one. On a wider scale, several chaotic and uneasy events occurred within our home country and beyond it. It is uncertain what will occur within the future ahead after the chaos from this year and the previous one. Frustration, heartbreak, confusion, division…all emotions have felt more common through the harder events on a personal level but beyond it.
I have made it known to many that, while I love Christmas to its core and admire the sense of community and hopefulness that often comes from it, I don’t put it on the same level of passion as I have for Halloween. A great part of this comes from what I feel is the overemphasis from not all but some about trying to be happy when it is harder for some to be joyous around this time.
In my eyes, some of the best Christmas movies are not the ones that feature Santa Claus or have everything in red and green all the time.
The Christmas films that find the closest place to my heart are the ones focused on demonstrating kindness and showing light in a season that is great for some but complicating for others.
Late-great director Satoshi Kon (a filmmaker who made such a significant impact on animation and who I will never not miss) made one of the great Christmas movies with 2003’s “Tokyo Godfathers.”
The animation is certainly a factor into the chaotic heart of this film. Much of the humor traces from the slanting of the main characters’ jaws in eagerness or anger or the spontaneously pointed, shark-like teeth appearing in comically angry people’s mouths. It is hilarious to witness characters comedically stumbling backwards and speaking in a rambling state because the movements and comical voices sound as close to people doing this in real life. Stillness of characters quietly sharing fictional legends resonating with them or reflecting on their past lives that are no more is powerful because they’re shot with the appropriate distance and dark lighting to bring more emotional weight to the scene. Kon crafted a moving and hilarious movie composed from some hilariously exaggerated expressions and the carefully drawn streams of steady tears and hunched shoulders to highlight the vulnerability of the three souls at the center of this story.
To those watching the GKIDS English dubbed version, the English voice actors do wonders at composing humor and aching wistfulness for their characters consisting of three homeless souls who, despite being at each other’s throats often, are united in their goal of trying to return an abandoned baby to her birth parents. Shakina Nayfack is delightfully temperamental and overflowing with eagerness as Hana, and Victoria Grace fills the teenage character, Miyuki, with an admirable ferocity and relatable bitterness about her situation. Jon Avner boasts a gruff voice for the character, Gin, that speaks quicker in comical frustration but breathes with the weariness and painful sense of loss when he reflects on what a mess he has made for things in his life.
A part of me likes to picture what it was like for these great performers to work off of each other in the sound booth. One of the things that sinks a lot of humor from me, even from filmmakers that are beloved by others but not by me, is when comedic directors only allow their actors to simply improvise or riff off of each other without bringing anything that new or funny to it. This movie works so well, however, because the script provides lines consisting of hilarious comebacks to the faults of the three heroes and leaving some great monologues about reflecting on where they are, right now, and who they used to be.
“Tokyo Godfathers” is a rather thoughtful Christmas movie, too. This film does what many of the movies I love the most do in that it allows its main characters to sit down and actually talk to each other about what’s on their mind or reflect on the beliefs and philosophy that is part of who they are in what they believe and feel.
In the first part of the film, the trio of aforementioned homeless characters are contemplating what might have been the motive for leaving an infant all by herself in the uncompromising cold and unpredictability of Tokyo. Discussion about whether certain adults should be parents in the first place and whether family causes more problems than it solves is often mentioned at this point and other areas of the film. This is a very smart and reflective movie, and, speaking as someone who works as an educator as my day job, it is refreshing to hear thoughtful and not irrelevant commentary about the responsibility and selflessness needed to bring a child into the world and raise it. The story carries greater connection to these ideas when the story eventually reveals the unfortunate scenario regarding the birth parents of the child, later on.
The movie is also powerful because it is also a story about redemption at its core. As much as Gin, Miyuki, and Hana might joke or humorously try to disguise their compassion towards another at times, they are all broken in different ways and are seeking solace or reconciliation. They commit to trying to get the isolated baby girl back to home because, even if they don’t say it aloud, they feel pain and hurt from the woeful mistakes of the past that led them to where they are. Furthermore, there is guilt for those they love that they caused harm to with their actions, and, similar to any great story of redemption, they are seeking a way to create right after so much wrong that they did before.
In a clever turn, this story focuses on its characters who have little (if anything), and the harshness of their state of trying to survive, combined with the hardship from their painful pasts, makes the audience only want to see them succeed at what is clearly a challenging task. The heart and humor from this unlikely trio shines further from their arguments and insane chases in the streets, due to this.
Moreover, similar to many great Christmas stories, “Tokyo Godfathers” expresses the theme of doing good for others and finding community during Christmas and life, in general. You see certain characters reconnect with those with whom understood them most in their past lives, and there is a moment in which Gin is asked to assist a fellow soul on the streets by providing something that gives him additional comfort in his last moments of life. Other characters, outside of the main characters themselves, are trying to find ways to make amends for the way they hurt others in the past and in their present day. Even as they’re still fighting with their demons and the angriest and most frustrating parts of themselves, they are human beings. They are making their effort, and you can tell from the somber animation and the weight and hurt from the terrifically done voice acting that they feel bad for what they’ve done and who got hurt in the wake of their destructive habits.
“Tokyo Godfathers” is a beautiful movie about performing kindness and transform for the better within unpleasant circumstances and an extremely chaotic world.
Movies about kindness, any good stories about them, in general, have always meant everything to me, but they especially mean a ton to me during the Christmas time that is near the end of a very complicated year.
Just when it seemed that no other hurt could occur at certain moments, something harsher and tougher would happen at the end.
We need more good movies about selflessness and attempting to empathize for others who have little or are in a bad spot more than ever.
In truth…we need more good people and to see more acts of genuine goodness now more than ever.
A few days before watching this movie again to write this, I saw a trailer for the new “Superman” movie coming out in 2025. I’ll decide how the film is for myself when I see it next summer, but it was hard not to feel tears and a thick feeling in my heart from seeing what is looking like a good version of a beloved hero protecting others from destruction and receiving hugs to lessen a hardened state that they’re in.
A few weeks ago, I conquered my biggest childhood fear by finally sitting down to watch “Gremlins” from start to finish (I’m happy to report that I was no longer terrified of the movie as I was when I was a child). Arguably, the biggest moment that won me over in the movie was listening to Phoebe Cates discuss her childhood trauma that happened around Christmas and what causes her to not enjoy the holiday. Whether it was the movie’s intention or not, I viewed it as a warped horror film that, to me, was about to help others get through a holiday that brings some joy and others bad feelings from how they experienced it as Zach Galligan tries to help his girlfriend and vice versa.
I nearly broke down to tears re-visiting “It’s a Wonderful Life” in the theater when Jimmy Stewart realizes that there’s no good deed that is too big or too small when it comes to impacting others.
These are very different stories (or glimpses of them) from which I are referring to, but they all played a part in trying to bring some sense of goodness or connection or heart in times that are partly confusing and the near-end of a year in which I am not sure what to anticipate for beyond in the future.
At times, I can connect to the trio of “Tokyo Godfathers” in that I want to do good as much as possible for those I work with, for those from my beloved family, for my truest, dearest friends, even through the hard circumstances and challenges that come my way. I also sometimes feel guilt for mistakes I could’ve corrected and ways in which my feelings got the better or the times in which I could’ve done something differently, and I hope that whoever I might’ve made a mistake towards knows that I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart.
Life is often not easy. We have to be there for each other and as understanding of each other as much as we can possibly be. It can be easier said than done with the challenges we have in our lives and the hardship and hurt that many (if not all) can carry from their past.
Yet, we have to try.
We have to be as good as possible as much as we can and, yes, around Christmas time, too.
I thank Satoshi and everyone involved with making “Tokyo Godfathers” for spreading this kind of cheer and message.
Merry Christmas.