There are only a few ways to tell a story. A book tells a story with words and, occasionally, pictures. Operas and stageplays do so with dialog and sets as well as action, costuming, lighting, and music. Films go beyond by providing scenery, but they can also provide voiceovers, that is, lengthy narratives accompanying documentaries and short statements revealing the inner thoughts of characters. Annoyingly, Tony Takitani, directed by Jun Ichikawa, is almost entirely driven by voiceovers, as if to say that the actors cannot act out the novel by Haruki Murakami, perhaps because Japanese are too inhibited to show emotion, so filmviewers must have their inner thoughts spoonfed by a voice (that of Hidetoshi Nishijima). The film begins by introducing Tony's father Schozaburo Takitani (played by Issei Ogata), a musician who went to China, stayed for the duration of World War II, was arrested after the war, and then was released to return to Japan. When Tony (played by Issei Ogata) was born, his father's friend suggested the virtue of giving his son an American name. Tony's mother died when he was only two years old, so he grew up almost parentless, as his dad was constantly on tour. After failed love affairs, Tony realizes that he will be all alone if his girlfriend Eiko Konuma (played by Rie Miyazawa) goes ahead with wedding plans with someone else, so he insists on marrying her. However, Tony is evidently so boring, unaccustomed as he is to sharing company with another person, that Eiko develops an obsession to buy expensive, fashionable clothes. After clearing a room to accommodate her expanding wardrobe, he asks her to consider keeping her obsession under control. One day, she returns some recent purchases; but, on the drive home, she is so distracted by second thoughts that she dies in an automobile crash. A freelance commercial artist who works at home, Tony then composes an ad for a personal assistant whose dimensions match those of his late wife. Unemployed Hisako (played by Rie Miyazawa) answers the ad, attracted by a generous salary, but learns that she must don his late wife's clothes as a work uniform. After a week, he lets her go but allows her to keep the clothes that she took home. Soon, Tony's father dies, leaving him records, which he sells to a second-hand record shop. Now Tony is all alone again, and physical memories of his father and wife are also gone. What will he do? Clearly, Tony Takitani portrays an alienated man with no identity outside himself, a paradigm for the soulless existence of many people in societies organized around moneymaking. MH
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