The Films
Japan gets filtered through outsiders’ perspectives in Tokyo!, a trio of films from three non-Japanese directors — Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Leos Carax (The Lovers on the Bridge), and Bong Joon-ho (The Host). Each film clocks in at around 40 minutes, and each seems to explore the isolation that can occur even in the midst of a massive city.
Each film has its own distinct kind of pleasures, and each almost deserves to be seen simply on its own. In truth, they all stand quite capably on their own merits, and it’s a great deal to get three solid films at the same time — getting one these days is unusual enough.
The first film is Gondry’s Interior Design, and it’s definitely the standout. Adapted from a comic book by Gabrielle Bell, the story deftly balances itself between surrealism and realism, with Gondry showing restraint where he ought to, and letting his hyper-creative mind guide the way elsewhere.
A young couple, Hiroko (Ayako Fujitani) and Akira (Ryo Kase), move to Tokyo with hopes of making it in the big city. They stay with her friend while they look for an apartment, but they have trouble finding a place. Akira, who’s a filmmaker, secures a job quickly, but Hiroko, whose ambitions are less focused, can’t seem to find anything.
This sensitive tale of a woman unable to find her place in the world takes a turn for the strange in its ending minutes, and what an ending it is. Interior Design is unexpectedly beautiful and touching. It’s beautifully shot, solidly acted, and so perfectly paced, it had me convinced 37 minutes was the perfect length for a film.
Up second is Carax’s Merde, a take on Godzilla films that’s the least focused of the three, but still succeeds in a lot of ways. Denis Levant stars as a bizarre creature from the sewers with long fingernails, a blind eye, and a crazy beard who terrorizes the inhabitants of the city for reasons unknown. When he launches a major attack at a train station, he’s put on trial for murder. Enter crack lawyer Maître Voland (Jean-François Balmer), an expert defense attorney who bears a striking resemblance to the creature, and one of the few who can speak his language.
Merde starts out strong, with some hilarious and creepy sequences of the creature doing what he does best, but it loses some steam during the trial sequences. By the end, things have picked back up with an appropriately mysterious ending, but the symbolism attached throughout isn't entirely clear.
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