Craig J. Clark
As the saying goes, charity begins at home, but what about those without one? Can a person afford to be charitable when they have next to nothing themselves? The makeshift family at the center of 2003’s Tokyo Godfathers (newly streaming on the Criterion Channel) is a trio of homeless people that becomes a foursome when they stumble across an abandoned newborn while dumpster diving, leading to a weeklong odyssey as they try to provide for the helpless infant and reunite it with its parents.
In its broadest strokes, the story is reminiscent of “The Three Godfathers” by Peter B. Kyne, most famously brought to the screen by John Ford in 1948 as 3 Godfathers, starring John Wayne as the leader of a trio of bank robbers tasked with caring for a baby. (It was Ford’s second run at the story after his 1919 silent Marked Men.) While that film climaxes with Wayne and the baby reaching civilization on Christmas Eve, that is when Tokyo Godfathers begins, with two of its protagonists sitting through an earnest nativity play and sermon to score a free dinner. “Nothing is harder than to have no place,” the preacher says to his temporary, disinterested flock, “but many are those without one.”
With its focus on the plight of those scraping by on the snowy streets of Tokyo, the film is decidedly more down-to-earth than director Satoshi Kon’s first two features, 1997’s Perfect Blue (out this month in a new 4K release from GKIDS) and 2001’s Millennium Actress. Kon doesn’t skimp on the expressive animation, however, and the characters inhabiting his story are a colorful, memorable lot. This is especially true of Hana, a former drag queen with an outsized personality who believes the baby is “a Christmas gift from God” and flat-out refuses to take it to a police station. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance!” he cries. “Let me feel like a mother!”
In some respects, the depiction of Hana could be problematic for contemporary viewers, since he self-identifies as a “homo” and is given to flippant statements like “I’m a mistake made by God. In my head, I am a woman.” He is accepted as he is wherever he goes, however, which is fairly progressive for a film made over two decades ago. (If people turn their noses up at him, it’s because of his smell, not because he’s wearing women’s clothes.)
There’s less ambiguity around Miyuki and Gin, the teenage runaway and middle-aged man Hana shares a tent with, but both are less than forthcoming about the circumstances that led them to choose a life on the streets over the comforts of home and family. Since Hana dramatically shares that he grew up in foster homes – a fate he doesn’t want for their foundling – that’s more than enough reason for them to schlep all over the city looking for the baby’s mother. Ever the drama queen, when Hana collapses from exhaustion early in their quest, he entreats the others to “look after my little angel. Go on without me. Just say you’ll never forget the queer you once knew.” Fortunately, Hana doesn’t really have to make the same noble sacrifice as Wayne’s companions, but it’s the thought that counts.
In contrast with 3 Godfathers, which is mostly concerned with the struggles of the title characters to survive in the desert with scant resources and very little water (most of which is reserved for their precious care package), Tokyo Godfathers is a fast-paced picaresque, plunging Hana, Miyuki, and Gin into various misadventures. When they stop to help a man trapped under a car, they wind up at a mobbed-up wedding interrupted by an attempt on the groom’s life. When Gin is beaten up by thrill-seeking youths, he’s nursed back to health at the drag club where Hana used to perform. Kon even throws in some action, pulling out the stops for the mad chase that ensues when they mistakenly turn the baby over to the wrong mother. That could have ended tragically, but a little magic realism goes a long way, and the reunions that follow are both joyful and surprising.
After Tokyo Godfathers, Kon created the animated series Paranoia Agent and completed one more feature, the surreal science fiction thriller Paprika. Both traffic in the kind of heightened reality his work typically consisted of, but at the time of his death in 2010 (of pancreatic cancer at age 46), he was developing his first film that would be suitable for children. Still, even if it’s not family-friendly, Tokyo Godfathers imparts a heartfelt message about the families people find for themselves. In the week they are its caregivers, Hana, Miyuki, and Gin make sacrifices for the baby and each other. No wonder its parents ask them to be the child’s godfathers. They’ve proven they’re more than qualified.
“Tokyo Godfathers” has arrived on the Criterion Channel just in time for the holidays.
