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[whytemyke]

There's a small, local film festival at my university at the end of the month. There appears to be some awesome movies playing, such as Motorcycle Diaries and Baadasssss or whatever. Also some good documentaries. But the one movie that truly has my interest piqued is Tokyo Godfathers.

have any of you seen it? Do you suggest going to see it if I can?

Full list of movies:
The Agronomist
Amen
Baadasssss!
Barn Red
Bloody Sunday
Blossoms of Fire
Bread and Roses
Bus 174
The Corporation
Deadline
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary
Flower of Evil
Guantanamera
His Secret Life
The Housekeeper
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
James' Journey to Jerusalem
Man on the Train
Men with Guns
Monsieur Ibrahim
Moolaade
The Motorcycle Diaries
Thunderbird Woman: Winona LaDuke
Osama
Persons of Interest
Refrigerator Mothers
Saints and Sinners
Shaolin Soccer
Tokyo Godfathers
Vodka Lemon


I think I'm gonna get a 10 pack of tickets. Which do you movie buffs on here suggest?

 

[Sumidor]

I'd also like to know what everyone thinks of Tokyo Godfathers. I always think about renting it, but always pass on it. I LOVE all Miyazaki films just for reference.

 

[Lhadatt]

Satoshi Kon's work is Required Viewing.

Perfect Blue: as close to Hitchcock as anime has gotten. It's a little shallow, but overall it's a good suspense/psychological mind-warping flick.

Millennium Actress: a fascinating look back at the life of a fictional actress. The storytelling method -

Spoiler

trapping the actress and the two interviewers who come to see her inside a sort of dimensional vortex while they act out portions of her life

- is corny, yet whimsical and rather effective; the technique is executed well here, even though it may have been done before (but what hasn't?). There is no organized plot, as such, but the film does deliver a solid story.

Tokyo Godfathers: a remake of John Ford's 3 Godfathers. Three homeless people - a drunken bum, a runaway girl and a drag queen - find a baby abandoned on Christmas Eve. They decide to return the baby to its parents. This sets the stage for revealing the real story behind each of the characters and how they reconcile themselves with their pasts. It's a wonderful movie, you shouldn't skip it.

Paranoia Agent (TV series): Shonen Bat ("Lil Slugger" in the English version) is a mysterious antagonist, attacking seemingly random people in the alleyways at night with his bat. Each victim's life is altered somewhat after the attacks. I haven't seen all of it yet since Geneon's taking their sweet time in bringing it out, but it's wonderfully twisted.

Satoshi Kon, while still not quite mature as a filmmaker, is one of the best anime's got right now. Kon's work doesn't rely too much on the tradtional anime look or feel - everything is more colorful and vibrant, the expressions and designs are much more true to life, while still retaining enough of the anime asthetic to keep from being stale. He's managed to transcend the cliches and warp them into something fresh, something new. He's no Miyazaki - he's different. I believe he's following a path similar to what Hitchcock might have done, had he gone into animation.

You have a choice to see a good film by an excellent filmmaker. I suggest you take it.

 

[Manabanana]

Tokyo Godfathers is really great. Rent it, by all means. Millennium Actress is another film by the same guy, if you're interested. It has a really neat concept behind it but is inferior to Tokyo Godfathers IMO.

 

[Zensetsu]

Shaolin soccer if its the original subbed version is totally hillarious, many lol moments. The dubbed version removed so much stuff, its a travesty i say!

Man on the Train is quite cool, very french.

 

[Flynn]

Tokyo Godfathers is great, not the best Satoshi Kon, but quite good.

It's a remake of sorts of the old John Wayne move The Three Godfathers.

I also liked Bus 174, a chilling documentary about a hostage crisis on a bus in Brazil. It's really heavy and leaves you with the impression that life in Brazil is cheap.