Tokyo! on DVD - Shaking Tokyo and Extras
Korean Director Bong Joon-Ho Directs Short Film
Jun 27, 2009
Given Korean director Bong Joon-Ho's background -- the much lauded comedy-social creature thriller The Host -- Merde almost seems like the more (or too) fitting story. Shaking Tokyo, while calmly controlled and altogether beautiful, lacks the flashiness of Merde and magnetism of Interior Design. Of course, that's the point. The film details the life of an extreme hikikomori -- a Japanese recluse -- played by Teruyuki Kagawa. Through fairly literal narration and deft camera work (many times the latter renders the former redundant), we get the full scope of his lonely life.
Stacks of books and pizza boxes, water bottles and other supplies line the walls of the apartment, which feels much more like an obsessive-compulsive burrow. Joon-Ho's delicate visual sense and use of light as an alternately warm and then oppressive element stands out in the slow-building break out of confinement.
It's a woman -- a pizza delivery girl with tattoos that control her emotions and functions to be exact -- that jolts the hikikomori out of his routine. Thematically, the fight against isolation piggy-backs well on Merde's larger sense of Japan, but the lack of momentum makes for a pretty sleepy closer. When both Merde and Shaking Tokyo begin to sag, it makes you question the overall structure of Tokyo!. The intermittent success of the second two films suggests that the running time probably didn't need to be split up so evenly.
Interior Design is the clear center piece, so it's a bit of a shame that the other two films couldn't have been planned around it.
Special Features:
If you're a production nut, Tokyo!'s extras are a definite win. Each film gets its own "Making of" featurette, all approached in a slightly different style. Interior Design is the most formally composed of the bunch, chock full of set footage and cast and crew interviews. Gondry allows a lot of insight into his filmmaking process, but refuses to sacrifice the magic - he doesn't let on to the technical how-to of the transformation. To be honest, it's sort of nice to have the illusion left to the imagination.
Merde and Shaking Tokyo get a more cinema-verite on-set treatment. Watching the careful rehearsal and blocking of Merde's opening tracking shot, and then a birds-eye view of the shooting, is just as interesting as anything in the film. After watching all three "Making of" bits, the compiled Director interviews (Gondry and Bell are most entertaining) gets to be a little superfluous.
At one point in the Interior Design "Making of", Futijani comments on Gondry's filmmaking process, and really, it works as a guideline for taking in Tokyo! on a whole: "It's important not to expect things to be done a certain way." That's the enjoyment and excitement of fresh cinema, and while Tokyo! may not hold up 100 percent across three narratives, it goes where it wants to and rarely where you expect to.
FILM RATING: 3.5 out of 5 stars
SPECIAL FEATURES: 3 out of 5 stars
VERDICT: Gondry's film is the main attraction, but as long as you can accept that, the side show isn't half bad either.
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