DVD Review: Tokyo! - Interior Design and Merde
Three Short Films Offer a Fascinating Ode to the Japanese City
Jun 27, 2009
Tokyo! was by no means a disappointment when released theatrically, but the segmented structure - consisting of three short stories - seems incredibly well-suited for home video release. All three parts are striking, though not equally compelling. As curiosities, Merde and Shaking Tokyo are worth watching now and again, but Part II and III of Tokyo! are completely outdone by Michel Gondry's spectacular entry, Interior Design.
Interior Design - Kafka By Way of Tokyo
Like Gondry's music video and best feature work, Interior Design sits comfortably at the intersection of a great concept, seamless special effects and a subtle mix of sweetness and melancholy. Based on Gabrielle Bell's comic book -- or "graphic novel" if you're feeling haughty -- Cecil and Jordan in New York, Gondry transfers the Big Apple narrative to Tokyo. The translation (neither Bell, who worked on set, nor Gondry speak Japanese) holds together across language and culture to convey a playfully taunting vision of getting lost in the swell of modern urban life.
Hiroko and Akira (Ayako Fujitani and Ryo Kase) go to Tokyo to crash at the expense and patience of their friend Akemi (Ayumi Ito) in her cramped apartment. The couple are in town to promote Akira's bizarre mutant zombie exploitation film The Garden of Degradation and search for an apartment of their own. In contrast to Gondry's two previous films -- the lifeless mess Be Kind Rewind and the intriguing mess Science of Sleep -- Interior Design feels both personal and intensely focused on the minutiae of its central, crumbling relationship.
While Akira adapts and finds work to support his so-called art, Hiroko wanders Tokyo (and life) without any definitive place or purpose. Like Kafka's fated protagonists, she obstructs the natural progress of those around her. That is, until her transformation to, let's say, something more useful. Gondry's wizardry with minimal CGI and practical effects is something to marvel at, but the punchy New Wave finesse and unapologetic romanticism is what solidifies Interior Design as one of his strongest entries.
Merde - The Return of Godzilla
Tokyo!'s second-billed Frenchman, writer/director Leos Carax, wrecks havoc on the city in Merde, a humorous social commentary on foreign infiltration. It's an incredibly strange nod to Godzilla and other creature features, and one that ultimately overstays its welcome. But a Chaplinesque performance by Denis Lavant as The Creature from the Sewers imbues Carax's oddity with some humanity.
Feeding only on Japan's imperial chrysanthemum and paper money, the Creature emerges from his cavernous home to wreck, at first, mostly harmless pandemonium on the Tokyo streets. Carax's opening tracking shot captures the Creature in all his wonderment: stealing crutches, smoking manically on a cigarette, chewing currency and licking a young woman. The laughter and innocence dissipates when the Creature returns with a stash of grenades leftover from a subterranean WWII stockpile.
History and violence boils up from beneath -- the Creature finds the grenades next to an Imperial banner commemorating the "heroes of Nanking" -- but as due process begins to take its course, Merde loses steam. The exchanges between the Creature and his lawyer in the "merde" language wear a little thin, and the three-way split screen courtroom scene gets excessive. There's a little too much to tackle for the running time, although Carax does manage to at least touch on xenophobia, conflicted nationalism, Bush-era politics and plenty else. Fans of Carax's earlier work may feel slightly cheated considering this is his first film in nine years. As a surprisingly thoughtful curiosity, though, Merde works well enough.
REVIEW CONTINUED IN PART 2 ...
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