Tokyo! | Telescope Film
Tokyo!

Tokyo! (도쿄!)

Critic Rating

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User Rating

  • France,
  • Japan,
  • South Korea,
  • Germany
  • 2008
  • · 112m

Director Michel Gondry
Cast Ayako Fujitani, Ryo Kase, Ayumi Ito, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Nao Omori, Denden
Genre Drama

Tokyo! is an anthology of three short films by directors Michel Gondry (France), Leos Carax (France) and Bong Joon-ho (Korea), each of whom offers an imaginative and transnatural/supernatural glimpse into the Tokyo Megapolis. The stories focus on a sewer-dweller, a lonely man, and a happy couple.

Stream Tokyo!

What are critics saying?

75

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Carax, who hadn't made a movie since "Pola X" in 1999 comes off best.

75

The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias

The entries aren't equally strong, of course, but each comes from a sharp outsider's perspective, approaching Tokyo as a strange, mysterious organism that infects the populace.

70

The New York Times by Stephen Holden

Both in its parts and in the sum of them Tokyo! is playfully and sometimes disorientingly apocalyptic.

70

Village Voice by J. Hoberman

Mutants abound as each episode trips the light fantastic.

70

The Hollywood Reporter

Though these vignettes appear frivolous and inconsequential when set beside the directors' features, they will tickle the funny bones of a general audience. A safe choice for fantastic fests, worldwide cinemas will open to the kind of audiences who bought tickets to see "Paris J'taime" or "To Each His Own Cinema."

63

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Do these films reflect actual aspects of modern Tokyo? The hikikomori epidemic is apparently real enough, but the other two segments seem more deliberately fantastical. The entertainment value? Medium to high: "Merde." Tokyo? Still standing.

60

New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman

Anyone looking for something original or unexpected should check out the trio of short films that comprise this entertaining ode to the titular city.

60

Salon by Stephanie Zacharek

This isn't an art house crowd pleaser along the lines of the 2006 "Paris, je t'aime," a freewheeling mixed bag of shorts made by the likes of Olivier Assayas, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuarón. Tokyo! demands more patience, patience that it sometimes doesn't deserve.

60

Variety by Justin Chang

An uneven but enjoyable trio of films that take affectionate (and sometimes literal) aim at the Japanese capital.

50

Chicago Reader by Andrea Gronvall

The best, Shaking Tokyo, stars the versatile Teruyuki Kagawa.