Tekkon Kinkreet, based on the manga Black and White by Taiyo Matsumoto, is directed by Michael Arias. It’s the first time that an American has ever gone to Japan and directed an entire project at the studio. So not only is it unique in that aspect, it is also special because the manga it is based on is universally loved. Since I haven’t read the manga I can’t make comparisons, even though in my experience most movies are never as good as the work they portray. Be that as it may Tekkon Kinkreet is pretty good.
Black and White are orphans living on the streets of Treasure Town. The town is special and wild, a kind of Never-Never Land, and like stray cats the two roam their boundaries, defending their territory. Black is the older of the two, harder and stronger; he lives to protect the younger and weaker White. The boys' names stand for the light and darkness that dominate their personalities.
White is naïve and more often than not he doesn’t seem to be all there, words and sayings spill from his mouth in a haphazard way. But Black always seems to understand him, always seems to be able to pick the meaning from his words. The story, in a lot of ways, is about the friendship that these two share (as well as the battle between good and evil). The boys balance each other out, as White says he has all the screws that Black needs for his heart.
In Treasure Town the yakuza and police have a working relationship but the yakuza have been absent for awhile. When Rat, an old yakuza, comes back to town, things start to change. Black is well known to Rat and he warns Kimura, one of his young henchmen, about the unbalanced boy.
When Kimura starts hassling a local gang, The Apaches, with a leader by the name of Choco, Black steps in. Crashing through a window and wielding a metal rod, Black beats the adult yakuza bloody. Choco, who was on the point of receiving a beating of his own, tried to prevent the yakuza from hurting the boy; instead he is left untouched and crying in the middle of the destruction. On the wall in the blood of that yakuza, Black has scrawled the words ‘My Town’.
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