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DVD Tokyo Godfathers
Satoshi Kon's third feature (following Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress) confirms his status as one of the most interesting directors working in anime. Tokyo Godfathers centers on three homeless people: Hana, a flamboyant ex-drag entertainer; Gin, an alcoholic former bicycle racer; and Miyuki, a sullen teenage runaway. Their tenuous existence becomes more chaotic when they set out to find the parents of an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve. They scream insults as they confront the lies they've told each other--and themselves--about the past. Yet they remain curiously endearing and even noble. All three care passionately about the abandoned infant, and they love each other, although they're loath to admit it. Kon skillfully uses color to suggest the bitter winter cold and the characters' alienation. Tokyo Godfathers shows that battling the inner demons that led these three characters to skid row can be a more daunting challenge than fighting aliens and cyborgs. (Rated PG-13: profanity, violence, tobacco and alcohol use) --Charles Solomon
So this is real-life anime. Wow. I'm stunned. Where Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress failed, Tokyo Godfathers greatly achieves. I loved this film. It's real-life anime with characters most of us have been at one time. We've all struggled--some to the point of being homeless. We've all had defeating family issues. And we've all wanted nothing more than to get away; this movie captures both that fantasy and that reality in one anime package.
And the story itself is touching. How can you not feel for these homeless people as they struggle to get a child back to its rightful mother? These three very unique individuals struggle to no end, facing bodily harm, organized crime, AIDS, and a possessive father, just to get this tiny little child to a safe place, a home, where it can be loved. And all of their efforts comes across as genuine. Excellent.
10 Stars!
I can't say enough good things about this movie. I watch a lot of anime, but I have to say this is the most well animated movie I've seen. You completely forget you're watching a cartoon. The characters just come to life. All of their subtle movements make them seem like real people. Especially Hana the transvestite. She was animated with so much attention to detail. It's so incredible! And then there's the story. Three homeless people find an abandoned baby and go out searching for the mother. These characters show so much heart and you really find yourself caring for them. And each of their situations for why they're homeless are all so real. So then they find the mother and then there's a huge twist in the story which I wont give away. I'll just say the ending is a miracle.
Fantastic movie!
AWESOME
I really have no words for this. The only thing is they could've subtitled the Spanish.
The second film by director Satoshi Kon and screenwriter Sadayuki Murai recalls Perfect Blue, but Millennium Actress is a more complex, subtle, and sophisticated work that evokes the history of Japanese cinema. After nearly 30 years of living in strict seclusion, the aged film star Chioyoko Fujiwara grants an interview to journalist Genya Tachibana. As their conversation begins, Kan intercuts scenes from Chioyoko's films with her memories of pursuing the mysterious artist she met as a young girl. Accompanied by his blasé cameraman, Tashibana finds himself within Chioyoko's memories and films, alternately observing and aiding the woman he adores. Kon's skillful direction and subtle use of color strengthen the intriguing story: Chioyoko's memories are rendered... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Miyoko Shôji - Shôzô Îzuka Director(s): Satoshi Kon DVD Release Date: Released the 28 October 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One of the most ambitious animated films to come out of Japan (or anywhere, for that matter), Perfect Blue is an adult psycho-thriller that uses the freedom of the animated image to create the subjective reality of a young actress haunted by the ghost of her past identity. Mima is a singer who leaves her teeny-bop trio to become an actress in a violent television series, a career move that angers her fans, who prefer to see her as the pert, squeaky-clean pop idol. Plagued by self-doubt and tormented by humiliating compromises, she begins to be stalked, in her waking and sleeping moments, by an accusing alter ego who claims to be "the real Mima," until she collapses into madness as her coworkers are brutally slain around her. Director Satoshi Kon, adapting the novel by Yoshikazu... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Satoshi Kon DVD Release Date: Released the 02 May 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Hayao Miyazaki gained widespread attention in Japan for his complex ecological manga series, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1982), which he adapted for the screen two years later. One thousand years after a war devastated much of the Earth, humanity clings to existence at the fringes of a vast, polluted forest inhabited by monstrous insects. Only Nausicaä, the princess of the tiny realm of the Valley of the Wind, grasps the environmental significance of the forest. She sees beyond petty wars and national rivalries to the only viable future for the planet. In Nausicaä, Miyazaki began to explore elements he would develop more fully in his later films: daring, compassionate heroines; exciting flying sequences; colorful side characters; strong interpersonal... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Hayao Miyazaki DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Although these three shorts were made to be shown together, they have little in common beside lavish production values. In "Magnetic Rose," a two-bit salvage rig answers an SOS in deep space from the palatial ship of a former opera diva. Koji Morimoto (Fly Peek!) blends shimmering visuals and snatches of Puccini, turning the derelict vessel into a lovely, fatal siren's song. Nerdy researcher Nobuo Tanaka takes an experimental drug and begins emitting a murderous gas in Tensai Okamura's (Kikaider) "Stink Bomb." Too silly to be scary, but too grim to be funny, it's the weakest entry. In "Cannon Fodder," Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) uses long tracking shots and an acid palette of khaki greens and faded reds to depict a militarized civilization where gargantuan... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Tensai Okamura - Kouji Morimoto - Katsuhiro Ôtomo DVD Release Date: Released the 24 February 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Porco Rosso (The Crimson Pig, 1992) ranks as Hayao Miyazaki's oddest film: a bittersweet period adventure about a dashing pilot who has somehow been turned into a pig. Miyazaki once said, "Initially, it was supposed to be a 45-minute film for tired businessmen to watch on long airplane flights... Why kids love it is a mystery to me." The early 1930s setting enabled Miyazaki to focus on the old airplanes he loves, and the film boasts complex and extremely effective aerial stunts and dogfights. In the new English dub from Disney, Michael Keaton as Porco delivers lines like "All middle-aged men are pigs" with appropriate cynicism, but his voice may be too familiar for some Miyazaki fans. Susan Egan makes a curiously distant Gina, the thrice-widowed hotel owner bound to Porco by... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Hayao Miyazaki DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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