‘New York Stories” gathered two Big Apple natives (Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen) and a Michigan auteur known for his mob movies (Francis Ford Coppola) to direct three Manhattan-related tales.
The new-to-DVD “Tokyo!” delivers three vignettes set within the Japanese metropolis, but none of the contributors hail from the city in question.
Directors Michel Gondry (“Be Kind Rewind”), Leos Carax (“Pola X”) and Bong Joon-ho (“The Host”) lean heavily on the surreal, not long-entrenched memories, to make this triptych worth a look.
Gondry’s “Interior Design” follows an aspiring filmmaker (Ryo Kase) and his girlfriend (Ayako Fujitani) as they try to settle in Tokyo with precious little funding. The two bicker gently about job prospects and limited finances until the girl realizes a hard truth about their relationship.
That lightbulb flash leads to one thoroughly unexpected transformation, and while it salvages an undistinguishable tale it also leaves the viewer smarting from whiplash.
“Merde” makes wonderful use of classic “Godzilla” orchestration in a story about a bearded freak dubbed “The Creature from the Sewers.” The deeply disturbed man with the bright green beard has been terrorizing Tokyo for weeks, popping up out of the sewer and assaulting strangers with alacrity.
But when he stumbles on a cache of grenades buried in the sewer system his antics take a turn for the deadly.
Carax plumbs quite a few themes in a rather short time span, from fears of terrorism to Tokyo’s decades-long relationship with a certain movie monster.
It’s all grand fun, at least until a protracted courthouse scene drags the story beyond its logical stopping point.
The final tale told by the man who gave us the sublime monster film “The Host” follows a hikikomori, or shut-in, who hasn’t left his home in more than a decade. Every possible need is fulfilled by a combination of checks from his father and delivery workers eager to bring him whatever he needs.
He hasn’t so much as exchanged eye contact with someone in all of that time.
That isolation gets threatened when he dares to glance at a lovely pizza delivery girl.
The delicate story also feels a bit bloated, but it’s beautifully told with a layered performance from actor Teruyuki Kagawa.
Taken individually, “Tokyo!’s” tales don’t add up to anything beyond finely crafted cinematic poems. Collectively, “Tokyo!” provides an unconventional – and satisfying – experience.
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