Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to [email protected].
We all know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and all that noise, right? There are tons of Christmas movies from neo-classics like Elf to old-time favorites like A Miracle on 34th St to Hallmark’s 1000 new films each year to that Hot Frosty movie on Netflix that’s getting all the buzz. We have all seen these and we all have our favorites and least favorites. And, each year there are hundreds of film bros who tell you that Die Hard is their favorite Christmas movie, too. This is a valid selection, for sure… at least, in our eyes… as Christmas is in the eye of the beholder. So, this year, in the spirit of John McClane, we present some other films that are secretly Christmas films.
The Pick: Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Satoshi Kon’s wintery urban comedy Tokyo Godfathers has stealthily become a Christmas mainstay for more than just anime fans. The madcap tale of three homeless friends who discover an abandoned baby could have leaned toward gripping melodrama like Kon’s earlier works. Instead, it radiates the chaotic, heartfelt magic of the Christmas season. Through moments of coincidence and acts of kindness, the film finds holiday spirit even in life’s darkest corners. It’s a Christmas movie under its grime and glitz, one that breaks free from cozy, Hallmark small-town clichés to remind us that true holiday magic shines brightest in those who give selflessly, no matter how much or little, to help others in need.
Featured Guest
Zoë Elizabeth
Zoë Elizabeth is a behavioral therapist (on hiatus) and fitness instructor with an abiding love for David Cronenberg and Jean Claude Van Damme.
Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers opens during a Christmas evening service in a church full of people, many of whom seem to be struggling (and possibly only in attendance so they can line up for the soup being served afterward), where the preacher declares to the crowd, “Jesus was born to offer those alone a place in which to be alive.” Enter our three unlikely heroes: Hana, a warm and loving trans woman with an endearing flair for the dramatic; the aptly named Gin, a (mostly) well-meaning but prickly middle-aged alcoholic; and Miyuki, a troubled, jaded teenage runaway. They discover an abandoned newborn baby on their way back to the cardboard box the three of them call home. Hana, driven by her desire to give the baby the motherly love she herself never received and to protect the baby from the nightmares of the foster system, convinces Gin and Miyuki that the three of them must take matters into their own hands to find the baby’s parents and figure out what happened.
The city of Tokyo (though intricately and dynamically rendered, as one would expect from any work of Kon’s) is washed-out, bleak, and cold. The hostility of the city’s aesthetics extends to its occupants: riders crowd to one side of a subway car to maintain distance from our group of undesirables; later, a group of teenagers drag Gin out of a tent to mug and beat him in the street. The warmth, color, and humanity that Tokyo so desperately lacks come in the form of our trio and the immigrants, drag queens, and working poor who come to their aid with timing that can only be described as divine, expecting nothing in return. If we’re talking about the “spirit of Christmas” in terms of proximity to its namesake, this may be the purest Christmas movie I’ve ever seen.
Tokyo Godfathers is funny, beautiful, and touching: a story about togetherness, selflessness, and redemption; a testament to the power of found family, the tendency of the universe (and/or God, if you like) to provide in mysterious ways, and the grace and connection that await us on the other side of shame; an assertion of the universal, irrefutable truth that we need each other.
The Team
Spencer Brickey
Up top, a confession; Anime has never been my cup of tea. It was probably a mix of being introduced to Toonami like 2 years too early and being creeped out by those horror anime ads in the back of Fangorias, but I steered clear of the genre for the most part. I’ve since remedied that in the past few years, trying to watch all the bigger titles, like the Studio Ghibli films and Akira, and anything else that catches my eye.
Particularly, the films that have wowed me the most since checking out the genre have been the works of Satoshi Kon. On a friend’s recommendation, I went and saw a screening of Perfect Blue back in 2019, and it was like a whole new type of film opened up to me. It was terrifying and propulsive and satisfying, in ways I hadn’t really thought animation could be. I vowed to see the rest of his (tragically short) filmography, and, in classic lazy cinephile style, I am just now seeing my second Kon film with Tokyo Godfathers.
And, just as I expected, Kon once again puts together an amazing world, trading in the thrills and terror of Perfect Blue for something much sweeter and funnier, while also being a level of heartbreaking I wasn’t fully ready for. Following 3 hobos who discover an abandoned newborn on Christmas Eve, we’re treated to a journey filled with chance encounters, adventures both comical and dangerous, surreal and magical interventions, and familial bickering that can be kind hearted or cutting. Throughout this trek through Tokyo to find the real parents, we are also introduced to each of these characters’ backgrounds; some are straight forward and tragic, while others take winding roads through white lies and embarrassing truths (while still being incredibly tragic).
By the time we come to the end, sitting with our 3 homeless heroes, we both feel like we know them inside and out, and that we have no idea where their story could go next. That was the strength of Kon; he was able to build worlds, and the people that inhabit them, in such a way that everyone is a fully fleshed out, living and breathing person, who also exists in fantastical worlds where things like heavenly intervention is real. Kon was truly a master of his craft, taken from the world way too soon.
It wasn’t like I was ‘surprised’ to love Tokyo Godfathers. After all, both Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress are masterpieces of the animated feature film form (say that five times fast, damn) so there was every reason to expect that Satoshi Kon would deliver another exceptional outing with this one.
But even with these expectations, I was still absolutely staggered by Tokyo Godfathers when I first watched it, and I continue to be staggered by it each Christmas season when I revisit it (it’s been in the regular rotation for a few years now). It’s just so wonderfully alive, and so fully in love with the great big mess that is the human race and all the ways we ruin ourselves and save one another.
The best Christmas movies are the ones that balance the schmaltz with an embrace of how the new year is also a time for loneliness and introspection. Capra knew that, and so does Kon. Tokyo Godfathers isn’t afraid of the squalid and seedy aspects of its setting and story, but owning those aspects so fully empowers the movie to reach for (and hit) profound levels of joy and hope. A Christmas miracle all around.
Elizabeth Stoddard
I can’t believe I have another excuse in a Two Cents entry this year to bring up John Ford’s 1948 western 3 Godfathers, but it is an obvious influence on Satoshi Kon in the Japanese filmmaker’s creation of Tokyo Godfathers. The premise of three random people finding an abandoned baby is perhaps all the two films share in common, however. Kon’s “godfathers” include runaway teen Miyuki and a trans woman Hana, who – along with homeless alcoholic Gin — find a baby girl in a trash dump. While Hana believes the baby, who she names Kiyoko, is a Christmas miracle, Miyuki and Gin want to take the child to the authorities.
Through a series of misadventures, the trio aims to take the baby back to her mother. The characters’ faces, especially when angry – which, let’s be honest, is a large percentage of the film – are overly exaggerated in their animation. But the film’s animation style otherwise tends towards realism, especially where the city scenes are concerned. When the trio walks by an ad for a Big Mac, it looks like a legit McDonalds poster. One dramatic moment near the end made me gasp in the sheer beauty of the animation; snow glitters the air through a sunbeam, and the viewer is filled with hope for these three.The humanizing quality of Kon’s storytelling leads the viewer to empathize with the trio, while most cinematic depictions of unhoused folks seem to aim for audience pity. Their caper though snowy Tokyo streets allows us time to get to know each of them, as well as the backstories which impacted their current situation. Tokyo Godfathers is emotionally intense in its depiction of families lost and found, yet action-packed at the same time. The story moves in unexpected directions, and the viewer is eager to follow. I appreciated Kon’s film even more on this second viewing. While Millennium Actress remains my favorite of his works, I am tempted to add this one to my regular holiday rotation.
Julian Singleton
It’s a refrain heard often, but Satoshi Kon was gone too soon. His films have such an offbeat sense of humor that provides viewers an unassuming gateway into cripplingly sharp insights about human behavior. While I still consider his TV series Paranoia Agent to be his multilayered masterpiece, Tokyo Godfathers literally sees Kon at his most miraculous.
In attempting to return an abandoned baby to her rightful parents on Christmas Eve, three homeless people–grizzled Gin, trans diva Hana, and young runaway Miyuki–encounter increasingly wild coincidences and twists of fate. Benevolent deeds are rewarded by reappearances of former foes or tucked-away lottery tickets. Becoming a hit man’s hostage leads to cozy respite with his wife, and communing over shared experiences of parent and child regardless of language barrier. There’s mistaken identities, circular crossed paths, and so much more–to the point where even Jesus’ birth seems like a tamer Christmas miracle by comparison.
The journey takes as much as it gives–as the trio use what little resources they have to take care of baby Kiyoko or pay for each other’s hospital visits with hard-saved cash or train tickets across Tokyo, often accompanied by the judgmental scorn of those in higher strata of society. But this flawed found family has forged the kind of deep bond that other blood families only tend to unpack with their Nativity scenes during the holidays. It’s that relationship between one another that, amidst the many divine interventions in this film leading them to Kiyoko’s birth family, forces Gin, Hana, and Miyuki to begin repairing bridges with the families they abandoned by choice or circumstance.
Because for as much loss, heartbreak, and downturn that can define our lives–it’s the ability to find meaning in one another that’s truly miraculous. To Kon in Tokyo Godfathers, The divine forces that interfere in our lives are gales that push us towards one another rather than keep us apart. No one should be discarded, or be made to feel like they’re trash. There’s still the opportunity to reconnect, to come together. Its Christmas setting only speaks further to this feeling of providence, second chances, connection, and rebirth–it’s a film that celebrates how, for all our good and bad actions, we all have the chance to come back in from the cold.
…YOU KNOW THAT’S ACTUALLY A CHRISTMAS MOVIE, RIGHT?
To ring in the Holiday Season, the Cinapse team has assembled all of our favorite movies full of Holiday Cheer–all while pretending to be anything but a Christmas movie. Our list for Noel Actually includes Sylvester Stallone action epics, Medieval twists of fate, a whimsical anime take on the Biblical Magi, the rebirth of Humanity, and of course, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman–ensuring December has a wide spectrum of cinema for the nice and naughty alike to enjoy.
Join us by contacting our team or emailing [email protected]!
12/23 – Children of Men
12/30 – Batman Returns
