Thoughts on Tokyo!

Sunday, August 15, 2010 7:07 PM By Simon

-So I was off chilling on the interwebs when I saw that Sugary Cynic had seen a movie called Tokyo!, and it was so weird that she had to communicate her thoughts through Haiku. Seeing the phrase 'sewer lebrachaun' and not to be one-upped, I watched the thing on Netflix.

-And it is weird. Like, cross between Etgar Keret and Kafka weird. Each of the three segments, directed by (in order) Michael Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho, my new South Korean Love (until Park Chan-wook gets off his ass, anyway) (also, Phil on Film interviewed him, and I am so nerdily jealous, and how many followers do I have to get before I get to interview directors?), start off fairly ordinary, or at least having some basis in the world where we happen to live (the second one I remain cautiously optimistic about), before tumbling into the bizarre.

-The last one is considerably less weird than the second one, and the whole order of the short films is like a roller coaster, crawling up the surreal tracks, peaking, than falling until the amount of surreal is just barely noticeable. Or something. I suck at metaphors.

-Fun fact: 'merde' is French for 'shit'. Use this as you will.

-Also Fun Fact: Ayako Fujitani, who played Hiroko of the the first segment, Interior Design, is the daughter of Steven Seagal. She also writes books. Awesome.

-Have a nice day.

5 comments:

SugaryCynic said...

Told you it was a weird one. I dug the Gondry short the best, it was bizarre without freaking me the hell out like Merde did. The last one wasn't bad but it dragged a bit. Also, "Ayako Fujitani, who played Hiroko of the the first segment, Interior Design, is the daughter of Steven Seagal" YOU JUST BLEW MY MIND

August 15, 2010 at 9:17 PM
Alex said...

I really loved Bong Joon-ho's short in this, and it was actually my introduction to him as a filmmaker. I did not like "Merde"- I don't care if it was a Godzilla reference, the whole thing just grossed me out. Gondry's was pretty good, but not as affecting as I'd have expected. Anyway, glad you saw it!

August 15, 2010 at 9:30 PM
Darren said...

Have to admit, I kinda want to see this - if only because the trailer makes it look freakin' bizarre.

August 16, 2010 at 12:28 AM
Sadako said...

Weird looking movie, but I kind of like weird movies, so...maybe I'll see it.

August 16, 2010 at 3:02 PM
Marc said...

I wanted to like this but they just got a little too weird for me. Maybe it was the Leprechaun sequence, maybe it was the girl turning into the chair but I just sat there dumbstruck when the credits rolled. Although they were fairly accurate, you pay a lot of money for crappy apartments in Tokyo.
Maybe I'll give it another go, but the only one I think I liked from start to finish was the last sequence...today's lesson seek out more from Bong Joon-ho:)

August 18, 2010 at 11:27 AM