Unlike Asian horror omnibus Three Extremes, the directors of Tokyo ! have little in common and the Tokyo cityscape isn't enough to make them bond.
Tokyo! (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:60
Fresh:45
Rotten:15
Average Rating:6.3/10
Consensus: An imaginative, if uneven, love letter to a city that signals a great creative enterprise by its three contributing directors.
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis:
In Tokyo!, three visionary directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho) come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city as it’s shaped by the...
In Tokyo!, three visionary directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho) come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city as it’s shaped by the disparate people who live, work (and run amok) inside an enormous, constantly evolving, densely populated Japanese megalopolis -- the enchanting and inimitable Tokyo.
Interior Design (Michel Gondry).
A young couple tries to set themselves up in Tokyo. The young man's ambition is clear -- to become a film director. His girlfriend, far more indecisive, cannot escape the vague feeling that she's losing control of her life. Directionless, both are beginning to go under in this vast city until the young woman, utterly alone, becomes the object of a bizarre transformation...
Merde(Leos Carax)
A mysterious creature spreads panic in the streets of Tokyo by means of his provocative and destructive behavior. This man, dubbed "The Creature of the Sewers" by the media, arouses both passion and repulsion...until the moment he is captured...
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Shaking Tokyo (Bong Joon-Ho)
For more than 10 years, he's been a hikikomori. He lives shut up in his apartment, strictly limiting all contact with the outside world to an absolute minimum. When a pizza delivery girl faints in his home during an earthquake, the unthinkable happens -- he falls in love. Shortly after, he learns that the girl has in turn become a hikikomori. Will he dare cross the threshold that separates his apartment from the rest of the world?
Rhapsody, psychogeography, urban valentine, freak show, mindwalk and many other things, Tokyo! is a fantasy in three movements that will make you see one of the world’s greatest cities -- if not any city -- with a new point of view.
In the tradition of such films as New York Stories, Night on Earth, Paris Je T'Aime and its forthcoming sequel New York I Love You, Tokyo! addresses the timeless question of whether we shape cities, or if cities shape us -- while in the process, revealing the rich humanity at the heart of modern urban life.
--© Official Site
Starring: Yuu Aoi, Jean-Francois Balmer, Julie Dreyfus, Ayako Fujitani
Starring: Yuu Aoi, Jean-Francois Balmer, Julie Dreyfus, Ayako Fujitani, Ryo Kase, Denis Lavant, Nao Omori, Teruyuki Kagawa, Naoto Takenaka, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa
Director: Oh Bong-Joon, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry
Director: Oh Bong-Joon, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry
Screenwriter: Oh Bong-Joon, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry
Studio: Liberation Entertainment
Reviews for Tokyo!
Tokyo! presents a generation of filmmakers who succumb to sodden, dull, solipsistic hipsterism -- not the life force of Boccaccio ‘70 or even 2007’s Paris, Je T’aime.
A mildly compelling trio of films deficient in imagination, intrigue and subtlety, with exception of the brilliantly bizarre opening film, Interior Design.
More of a curiosity than a cohesive sampling of cinematic visions, "Tokyo!" fails to impress.
Though I adore all three directors in the new Tokyo!, I found little worthwhile here, except for some empty exercises in strangeness and discomfort.
Tokyo! has no real reason for being, least of all as a city portrait. It’s disposable art-house tourism, made by filmmakers with too many festivals to attend.
All three films deal with things hidden, or disappearing, or suppressed. But Tokyo, if anything, becomes more of a mystery after Tokyo! than it was before.
Only Bong's project transcends its limiting, carefully calibrated stylistic mode to achieve something substantive.
Three directors, three films, three reasons to rethink moving to Tokyo.
Anthology films are like communism or the rhythm method --things that work much better in theory than actual practice.
You wish they added up, but as with so many anthology films, the pieces of Tokyo! feel more like placeholders than real works.
Unfortunately, the weirdness is not always entertaining - in some cases it is merely boring - but there is enough going on to make this interesting for fans of art house cinema.
To each, the metropolis is a dense atom; its inhabitants, electrons crammed together but straining to avoid collision.
The cumulative strangeness of Tokyo! is consistent with the previous eccentricities of the three directors, and is well worth the time of any moviegoer looking for something different in their movie diet.
Some may consider it a callous critical evaluation. In truth, it's nothing short of a luxuriant love letter.
Worth seeing for anyone who calls themselves a fan of any of its directors or weird anthology films in general.
A collection of three films that try to capture the experience of living in that crowded Japanese city.
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