Customer Reviews

Tokyo! [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A couple months ago I saw TOKYO! at a film festival in San Francisco. One of the reasons I went to the screening was because of Michel Gondry, who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind. His piece was actually one of three short films that are in Tokyo! Each story takes place in the great city, but offers something different. The first, by Gondry, is about a young couple who are going in different directions. The second, by Carax, is about a sewer dweller who terrorizes the streets of Tokyo. And the thrid, by Joon-Ho, is about a OCD man who leaves his house for the first time in 10 years after falling for the pizza delivery girl.

I'm excited Tokyo! is coming to Blu ray because it now has a chance to reach a wider audience. I think this particular film will benefit from a High Defintion transfer because of the different locations and colors used throughout the film. My personal favorite story of the three was Gondry's, but one of the great things about this film is that everyone has an opinion as to which one was the better story. Tokyo! is a visually appealing film that is worth checking out.

Tokyo! is an omnibus feature that brings together three of today's most vibrant directors for three enthralling stories that encompass one city. Each non-Japanese director brings his own style to the screen to present a foreigner's view of the largest city on earth, and in doing so provide us with a cinematic treat.

INTERIOR DESIGN - Michel Gondry's (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) piece follows a young couple as they try to set themselves up in Tokyo. The young man's ambition is clear - become a film director. His girlfriend however is far more indecisive and cannot escape the feeling that she's losing control of her life. Directionless, both are beginning to go under in this vast city, until the young woman becomes the object of a bizarre transformation.

MERDE - Leos Carax (Lovers on the Bridge) spins the tale of a mysterious creature that spreads panic in the streets of Tokyo. Through this monster's provocative and destructive behavior, he arouses both passion and repulsion...until the moment he is captured.

SHAKING TOKYO - Bong Joon Ho (The Host) gives us the story of a hikikomori, an agoraphobic man that has been shut up in his apartment for 10 years. When a pizza delivery girl faints in his home during an earthquake, the unthinkable happens - he falls in love. Shortly after, he learns the girl has also become a hikikomori and now to find her he must dare to cross the threshold between his apartment and the rest of the world.

This visually stunning film addresses the timeless question of whether we shape cities, or if cities shape us.

I saw it at the Miami Film Festival and absolutely loved it, I can't wait till it comes out on DVD.

I sat down to "Tokyo!" with uncertain expectations. I suppose, in many ways, I had anticipated these vignettes by three different international directors would be an homage or love letter to the city in the vein of "Paris, Je T'aime." Well, I've been wrong before and I'll certainly be wrong again! This trio of short films by the esteemed talents of Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Joon-ho Bong re-imagine the city as a dark subterranean fantasy world. Strange, to say the least, I think it's fair to proclaim that "Tokyo!" stands as a unique expression of cinematic imagination. Whether, in the long run, you'll love or hate these films is probably the big question as they are certainly designed to inspire strong feelings. But, one thing is clear, you've never seen anything quite like this collection of oddities.

Gondry, whose eccentricities worked best in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," starts things off with "Interior Design." "Design" follows a young couple who move to Tokyo to seek their fortune. As the guy starts to succeed and adapt, his girlfriend assumes a more peripheral role. Her feelings of inadequacies and uselessness ultimately manifest with a physical transformation that is brilliantly devised and slyly hysterical. It, as a whole, is my favorite segment! But Carax's "Merde" easily contains some of the trio's most inspired moments. A creature from the sewers emerges daily to terrorize the citizens on the streets. Looking more like a deranged leprechaun than an actual monster, his strange--but largely benign--attacks escalate to bloody brutality when he happens upon a cache of weapons. I absolutely loved these early scenes. When captured, his subsequent legal battle captivates a national audience. I'm not entirely sure if I understood the point of Carax's contribution, however, but it is an intriguing entertainment. And last "The Host" creator, Joon-ho Bong, developed "Shaking Tokyo." This cerebral piece concerns a recluse who finally gathers the courage to venture into the world after being entranced by a strange pizza delivery girl. A commentary on isolation, this was perhaps the least satisfying vignette for me.

"Tokyo!" is a must-see film for anyone who loves adventurous cinema. From a purely conceptual standpoint, I adored the ideas in these mini-films. I don't know, particularly, if the three combine to form any universal themes--but they are outrageously different. Perplexing and odd, I will remember "Tokyo!" and am sure to recommend it to select friends. But it's definitely not for everyone! So beware. Loopy, insane, baffling, but fun--I'd rate this as 3 1/2 stars generally with an upward round for the bizarre factor. KGHarris, 1/11.

A couple months ago I saw TOKYO! at a film festival in San Francisco. One of the reasons I went to the screening was because of Michel Gondry, who directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Be Kind Rewind. His piece was actually one of three short films that are in Tokyo! Each story takes place in the great city, but offers something different. The first, by Gondry, is about a young couple who are going in different directions. The second, by Carax, is about a sewer dweller who terrorizes the streets of Tokyo. And the thrid, by Joon-Ho, is about a OCD man who leaves his house for the first time in 10 years after falling for the pizza delivery girl.

I'm excited Tokyo! is coming to DVD because it now has a chance to reach a wider audience. My personal favorite story of the three was Gondry's, but one of the great things about this film is that everyone has an opinion as to which one was the better story. Tokyo! is a visually appealing film that is worth checking out.

It is a movie that includes 3 independent sub-movies. After watching the movie, I thought, it was a movie that makes you not understand what it wants to say -- somewhat like Wong Kar Wai's recent movies. I found that in school, I learned that it is better to simplify and make what you want to pass along clear and simple, but often times in real life, if I make it the simplest idea and tell people what I think, some will look down on the idea, and some will even say, "that is wrong".

(For example, if I tell my aunt supply and demand is what determines the price, she will say, "NO, IT IS WRONG!" So even if I tell her that oxygen is essential to life but since it is plentiful, nobody will pay $1 to buy it near the ocean, and nobody needs diamond to survive, but many people will spend $1000, $2000, or more on diamond and even make the phrase "diamond is a woman's best friend" -- and my aunt will say, "even so, your idea is wrong. Anybody with a brain will know oxygen is important and treasure it more than diamond." Am I really wrong, or people merely accept what they are commonly told and not accept more fundamental ideas?)

Anyway, I found that a movie like Tokyo, it doesn't make the ideas easy to understand, or each person needs to find or interpret the movie for its meaning, and now, all of a sudden, the movie is "deep", and people will treasure it, honor it, and a lot of awards are given for these kind of movies -- even Shakespeare's plays appear like that too -- somewhat hard to understand and people always interpret it and write papers about it. So personally, I don't like movie style like this. I would rather watch the style such as Wong Kar Wai's early movie - Days of Being Wild, which has a pretty clear meaning and is quite shocking as well.

I rented this years ago and OMG it's great!!
So I bought it here, great service and product!!
A must see!! There is subtitles though, also it
starts off slow but trust me it's a great movie.
3 short stories and 3 directors.

A very intersesting film. Michel Gondry's film was my favourite of the three short films. Each film had a different take on life in Tokyo and each produced original and completely different stories. Definitely worth the watch especially if traveling to Japan or have been to Japan before.

Entertaining, artful and out there! This is an art film that satisfies on many levels in three films by three directors. The element of fantasy is in all films. Humanity in the city; living, loving and lurking. Blu-ray is very good. Soft and crisp pics. Quiet and LOUD sound. See: Shaking Tokyo

"Tokyo!" is an anthology of three 45 minute (give or take) films by non-Japanese directors filmed in the title city. Although the stories themselves are very different, they all have themes in common, most notably divergent or behavior, transformation, and just general weirdness. Art-house and cult film fans will have a good time; action freaks and mainstream audiences not so much. But anybody looking for a taste of the bizarre from some up-and-coming directors in one of the greatest cities in the world will be well-served with this movie.

The first story is "Interior Design" directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind). The story is of a young couple arriving in Tokyo with little money and no home. They stay with an old friend who quickly begins to resent their presence. Akira is a filmmaker trying to gather attention for his directing debut -which features a woman giving birth to a bunny and a skullheaded biker with a swastika light on his motorcycle- and Hiroko seems to be just along for the ride. Eventually, she learns the true nature of their relationship as her lack of personal ambition forces her into the ultimate supporting role. An amusing film, but not spectacular.

French director Leos Carax's "Merde" is the strongest piece in my opinion. But then again, any film utilizing audial kaiju iconography is going to earn brownie points right off the bat with me. Behold the Creature of the Sewers! See him stomp through the Tokyo streets ripping crutches from the arms of cripples, eating ladies' flowers, biting people's personal photographs, and licking schoolgirl's armpits as Akira Ifukube's epic Godzilla theme blares. Yeah sounds like me, I know, but this time it's not. Honest. It's the title character, Merde (French for "sh!+"), in all his milky-eyed, red-bearded, bedraggled glory. After discovering an underground cache of grenades, he decides to play a quick game of Grand Theft Auto in real life and is eventually caught with his pants down (actually he doesn't have any) by the authorities. A French lawyer who is a dead-ringer for his client is brought in to defend Merde and the two converse at great length in a laughably nonsensical language. The trial is a circus highlighted by Merde's assertion that he hates Japanese people because they have vagina-shaped eyes. Meanwhile, the media goes crazy with half of Japan calling for his execution and the other half revering him as a messiah. Very entertaining film.

Lastly comes "Shaking Tokyo" from Korea's Joon-Ho Bong, who directed the excellent horror flick The Host. The story centers on a hikikomori (pathological shut-in) who has not made eye-contact with another human being in 11 years. When he breaks that impressive run on a cute pizza delivery girl, an earthquake causes her to faint into his apartment. Discovering the insane secret to waking her up, he finds that she is as OCD as he is when she actually spots an organizational flaw among his perfectly stacked piles of old pizza boxes. Apparently inspired by his dedication she quits her job, and the smitten recluse must dust off his unused pair of shoes and evict the spiders from them and go out into the city to find his love. But where are all the people? I like the way that the outside scenes are shot extremely brightly to mimic the eyesight of a man who hasn't been outside in years finally stepping out into the sun. This is possibly the weirdest of the three and certainly relies the most on imagery since there is very little dialogue. Still, it's an amusing little story.

All three films that make up this one big film are pretty abstract and occasionally opaque in their approach and leave it up to the viewer to figure out what the hell they just saw. I personally enjoyed the madcap weirdness of Merde, the oddity of Shaking Tokyo, and the relationship commentary of Interior Design as well as the casts from all three. All three also have a healthy dose of social commentary and surreal humor so indie fans should definitely give this one a look. The DVD release has 30 minute "making of" docs on each film that mainly consist of behind the scenes filming and the like along interviews with the directors and stars. Check it out if you're in the mood for something very different.

3 1/2 stars rounded up for oddity's sake.

"Tokyo!" is quite the charming film, or I should say "films" It's actually three short films directed by three of the most imaginative directors working the independent film circuit. The first film directed by Michel Gondry(Eternal Sunshine) "Interior Design" is about a young couple trying to find a apartment to Tokyo. They crash with their office girl friend who quickly grows annoyed by their inability to find a place of their own. The boyfriend is an aspiring movie director while the girl is undecided with her future. She starts to feel that she's bringing her boyfriend down and she goes on a strange journey(and a strange transformation) to find her usefulness . The second film is called "Merde" (directed by Leos Carax.) which follows a crazy sewer dweller who terrorizes the streets of Tokyo. He is later captured after he kills dozens of people in a grenade tossing spree. The nation becomes divided when "Merde" is put on trial and he becomes a short of icon for social distress and rebellion. The last film,"Shaking Tokyo" directed by Bong Joon Ho(The Host) shows the life of a shut in who falls in love with a pizza delivery girl who gets knocked out in his apartment during an earthquake. He must face his fear of the outside world to find her but realizes that he made not be the only one with his condition. Overall "Tokyo!" is an entertaining collection of short films by very talented directors. The movie really shines from their different talents, and those talents cause dazzling dynamics that you can't find in most one director films. If you're a fan of any of these directors who should check this movie out. A joy for the eye as well as the mind, "Tokyo!" should not be missed.