Tokyo: A Three Series
Tokyo is a film in three segments. There are three directors giving you three reasons to move in Tokyo. What you need to do is watch this movie and then create your own visionary image about the megalopolis Tokyo where some eccentrics live in futuristic present. The film is a mixture of an earthquake, a weird goblin living in sewers and two young people in search of a place. The parts are some where connected through camera, light and acting.
Series: Merde
Cast: Teruyuki Kagawa, Yu Aoi, Naota Takenaka
Director: Leos Carax
Writer: Leos Carax
Series: Shaking Tokyo
Cast: Teruki Kagawa, Yu Aoi , Naota Takenaka
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Writer: Bong Joon-ho
Series: Interior Design
Cast: Ayako Fujitani, Ayumi Ito, Ryo Kase
Director: Michel Gondry
Writer: Gabrielle Bell
Running time: 1 hour and 42 minutes
Rating: 3/5
The movie is made by two French filmmakers Leos Carax and Michel Gondry. There is also contribution from a Korean named Bong Joonho. It is through their lenses of thoughts that the film Tokyo is born which is at times disorientingly apocalyptic.
It is Merde directed by Carax that stands out to be the best amongst three segments. In this segment there is a subterranean half-human played by Denis Lavant who pops out of manhole as he lives in the sewers with an astounding comic zeal. In the film he would suddenly pop out of manhole snatch some sandwiches or a cigarette from the passer by and would create terror amongst the people. After terrorizing the place by creating mass panic he would again go back to another manhole.
Finally in the movie he is captured and brought into court. None understands his language so a translator has been brought into picture. It is unknown as to why the man lived in sewers. However the man had vented emotion against Japanese system more specifically against women. This particular part resembles some Japanese Reality show, The Screamer in which a man is photographed by hidden camera and he let loose himself behind people with a scream in his ear-piercing demeanor.
The Korean filmmaker features Teruyuki Kagawa as the hero in his segment Shaking Tokyo. He is a typical Hikkomori, a term in Japan used for hermits. He shut himself for almost 10 years with least human contact. However, his hermetic passion comes to an end when he accidentally comes across a young and beautiful pizza delivery girl. Courtesy is the earthquake. He frees himself from isolation and ventures out in the streets amidst people after a long time.
Then the Interior Design by Michel Gondry reflects more conventional tale with castings Ryo Kase and Ayako Fujitani as young lovers in search of an apartment in Tokyo. In the search there begins greater transformation within them. What is the change and how did the change affect them is for the audience to find out.
Now, after watching the movie, you are left with the thought that do these segments actually reflect life, people and essentially the city of Tokyo. The Hikkiomori part is quite significant and seems quite real enough but the other two is more akin to entertainment.
