Tokyo Godfathers is one of the strangest and most touching Christmas stories to hit film. From the mind of Satoshi Kon, this movie about second chances is told from the point of view of three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo. What is most unusual about this movie is that it manages to completely divorce itself from the rampant commercialism that is all but omnipresent during the holidays. In fact, the holiday is hardly mentioned at all, though its choice in the film's setting is no accident.

The main characters in the story are Hana, a transvestite and once a dancer in a club; Gin, a drunk and once a family man; and Miyuki, a teenaged runaway. While searching a pile of garbage on Christmas Eve, they discover a baby girl that had been abandoned. The three then take the baby under their care, while they search for clues that will hopefully lead them back to the girl's parents and reveal what happened.

The movie is plot-driven, but gives plenty of time and significance to the characters. One early observation is that the three don't seem so pitiful as one might imagine homeless people to be, because they're so good for each other. This dynamic helps bring out the irony of their whole situation as we get to know them better.

This movie is teeming with priceless facial expressions.	Gin is about as disturbed as the audience of a Kenny G concert.

As the three are searching for baby Kiyoko's* parents, each experiences strange events that have meaning to their past lives. As painful as that must be, their mission to find Kiyoko's parents takes the edge off. The film isn't really about these people reclaiming their lives, even though it offers hope that they will. It's about reclaiming their dignity as human beings - a chance to make up for their past wrongs. One might figure that if a homeless person can do it, anybody can.

Studio MADHOUSE did the animation for this feature, and to put it in techincal terms, it's pretty. The studio took a layered approach to offer both detailed backgrounds and natural movement. (This is especially apparent in pans, where some layers are panned at different speeds than others.) Some other nifty background effects that the film uses well are wind and snow; but the real star is the character animation. The main characters especially have a good variety of facial expressions and body language. Combined with the marvelous voice acting, they appear more lively in the film than one might expect someone of their social status to be.

Composer Keiichi Suzuki (Spiral) built the score for Tokyo Godfathers around the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th (Ode to Joy), upon the director's request. The tune pops up occasionally throughout the film, and again during the credits. The latter competes with the odd events of the movie for the title of Weirdest Part of Film. The tune is somewhat like drunken reggae. Drunken as opposed to toked up on ganja, that is. Or perhaps it's both. The rest of the film's music is more sober - a helping of Christmas cheer here, a somber woodwind piece there. It's somewhat forgettable, while the film is not. Director Kon is one of few animation directors that knows both the kind of musical experience he wants in the film, and how to use the music to get it.

All in all, Tokyo Godfathers doesn't command the kind of attention that Millennium Actress did, but it does affirm the notion that Satoshi Kon's gift was not a one-shot deal. The film succeeds in making miracles believable again, one weird event at a time. And perhaps more importantly, it drives home the idea that it's never too late to be forgiven, or to start over. I look forward to seeing more brilliant films by this very talented director.

* Kiyoko is the name Hana gives to the girl. It stems from kiyoi, meaning pure.

Distributor: Columbia Tristar
Creator: Satoshi Kon / Studio MADHOUSE
Released: 2003

Plot: A+
Character Design: A
Animation Quality: A
Music: B+
Overall: A