Tokyo! (2008, France, Japan, Germany, South Korea)

For a movie with an exclamation mark in its title, Tokyo! is pretty dour. The anthology, featuring short works by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-Ho, focuses on lost souls in the Japanese megopolis. Is it because they’re foreigners that these takes on Tokyo are so dark? Or does the city just bring out the worst in too many?

The series kicks off with Gondry’s Interior Design, in which two young lovers try to make it in the big city, despite parking regulations, an ugly real estate market, and more than a little self-doubt. It’s somewhat whimsical, which is to be expected from Gondry, and touches on his usual themes of artistic viability and male-female disconnection. It’s a tight and somewhat affecting little tale, however, without Gondry’s more typical excesses. Unfortunately, the following piece by Carax doesn’t avoid the same. Too broad by half – an obvious allegory about the xenophobia and general unrest lurking just below Japan’s surface – it’s stylish, but ultimately frustrating and flat.

My favorite section is Bong Joon-Ho’s story of an agoraphobic Tokyoite who inadvertently finds the connection he needs. Still fairly obvious, thematically, it’s anchored by the awesome Teruyuki Kagawa (Tokyo Sonata, Sukiyaki Western Django), and has a humanity that the other films lack. Its take on Tokyo life may not be much sunnier than the preceding two, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to finally find a hero.

(For what it’s worth, expect to see a good deal of Japanese fare here in the next couple of months. (If I can get my act together and start posting regular reviews, that is.) I’m headed to Japan in November, and in anticipation, I plan to be queuing up a number of old favorites as well as some films I’ve been meaning to get around to for ages.)