Tokyo! is a combination of 3 stories by 3 different directors that centers around this metropolitan city. First up, Michel Gondry which is mainly why I wanted to catch this film, loved his 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'! 'Interior Design' is about this Jap couple who arrived at Tokyo to screen the boyfriend's film at a porno theater, they were crashing in their ex-schoolmate's tiny apartment and while the boyfriend is busy working as a gift wrapper and presenting his film, the girlfriend felt left-out and useless. Until something unexplainable happened one day...which I still cant get a grasp on the reason but I would say that's only when the story picked up and got interesting. 2nd story by Leos Carax (French director) called 'Merde' about a sewage man who will pop out of the Tokyo sewage and terrorize the Japanese citizens on the streets. Immediately I recognize how the director wanted to portray the Japanese concept of 'aliens' in their country. The sewage man represents a foreigner and how the locals will view them as always an outcast and treat them like monsters. So the saga continued when he decided to throw bombs onto the Tokyo streets and the authorities decides to catch him and sentence him to death. In retrospect, the 2nd story was too draggy and doesn't really make much sense to me in the end. Didn't engage me at all. Now the final one by Bong Joon Ho is my personal favourite, a Korean director, 'Shaking Tokyo' is about this guy who is a hermit in Tokyo, he has stayed in his apartment for more than 10 years without stepping out at all and his apartment is arranged perfectly w household items w years of practice. He has a certain routine everyday and particularly on Saturdays, he will order a pizza delivery. He has never made any eye contact with anyone who knocks on his door until one day, he looked at the delivery girl and then there was an earthquake at the moment. Girl fainted at his doorstep and he flustered for a while before managing to wake her up. He fell in love w her and when she didn't appear the next Saturday to deliver the pizza, he decided to finally step out of his house to look for her. I really enjoyed this last segment as the actor is superb, the story is realistic and very engaging. Kept me interested and amused throughout!
Review of Tokyo!
