The animé Tokyo Godfathers, directed by Satoshi Kon, begins on Christmas Eve. We hear a sermon about Christian brotherhood as well as Christmas music. But the focus quickly shifts to three homeless characters who discover an abandoned baby in a Shinjuku junkpile on a snowy Christmas Eve. Although they are not in a position to rear the child in makeshift housing, they treasure the baby, try to care for its needs, and soon decide to search for the rightful birthmother and birthfather with clues from the contents of a bag in a locker opened by a key that they find next to the baby. Their quest illuminates a lot about Japanese culture and society, which seem in conflict until they finally locate the rightful parents. The one in the group with the most love for the baby is Hana (voiced by Yoshiaki Umegaki), an unemployed transvestite who is trapped in a male body. Miyuki (voiced by Aya Okamoto), a teenage runaway from an unpleasant father, also shows maternal instincts but is too young to provide mother's milk for the baby. Gin (voiced by Toru Emori), an alcoholic who walked out on his wife and daughter in disgrace because he ran up too many gambling debts, shows some concern for the baby, changing its diapers early in the quest, but is too standoffish to be described as paternalistic. In their search for the birthparents, they provide shelter, change diapers, prepare a baby bottle, and follow clues to various locations around town. Ultimately, they find the woman who stole the baby when her own child died at childbirth as well as the birthparents. However, they also locate family members from whom they have all fled, so there are many redemptive reunions in the expected happy ending that is accompanied by Beethoven's Ninth Symphony "Ode to Joy" chorus. Good deeds of the Christmas Eve "wise men" are indeed rewarded. There are also many laughs, though American audiences will doubtless miss most of the humor, but not how subway riders are offended by the stench of the homeless trio. But perhaps the best part of Tokyo Godfathers is not the fascinating plot but the way in which each character applies the best of Japanese culture to resolve the many problems that they encounter within a society that has more alienation and atomization than the rosy myth, peddled by the government, that Japanese live in a well-integrated, homogeneous society. The film reveals the seamier side of Tokyo, namely, gangsters having a party and young punks beating up Gin. A comparison with 3 Godfathers (1948), thus, will be very instructive, as Tokyo Godfathers is a clever retake of the John Ford classic, with John Wayne's role assumed by the transvestite. MH
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