Truly Dreadful Film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Tokyo! is different things to different people. Everyone that sees the movie will see each foreigners artistic portrayal of different aspects of Tokyo living and life in a very different manner.I wont go into each scene detail, enough people have done that here. What I will say is I've lived in Tokyo for some time and each segment struck a chord in me in one way or another.If you have never been to Tokyo, or even to Japan, each segment might confuse you for various reasons.I will say that each segment truly did capture a very different aspect of Tokyo and Japanese life in a way that I've yet to see in any other movie about modern Tokyo.The only thing I will say about each short was that the ending for all seemed lacking, unfulfilled, and as if there should have been more there at the end. However, even with *my own personal feelings* of the endings being lacking, that in itself also caught its own part of Tokyo as well.In my opinion, its definitely a movie for those of us who enjoy or experienced Tokyo, or Japanese lifestyles, in one way or another.However, it was absolutely not what I was expecting at all from this movie!

I knew it was a series of short films by foreign directors, but I expected something better from the all-star Japanese cast in these films.The first segment "Interior Design" is a total trash. The two main characters' behaviors were completely un-Japanese and ludicrous. The 'spin the umbrella and jump' joke was so anime, it probably was copied from an anime series. The whole presentation with the chair and heroine was so generic that it felt like a work of a film school student trying to be creative, much like the failing filmmaker in this movie.The second segment "Merde"'s opening sequence was very solid, but the Gojira theme music playing in the background was ridiculous, and shows how little research was done on Tokyo and Japan for this film. The second havoc scene was produced with so little care that one of the dead victims was clearly breathing. The director also went overboard with the fake language and the crazy gesture that came with it. The actor who played Merde was brilliant, but the French lawyer's acting was so fake and corny. This short film would've been much better with more Merde action.The third segment, "Shaking Tokyo" was the only short film that had anything remotely related to exploring characteristics unique in Japan. I guess being the closest neighbor of Japan, a Korean director was the only one of the three who were qualified to describe Tokyo in a short film, and the only one who did any kind of research. Cinematography, Kagawa Teruyuki's narration, and depiction of this atypical (very organized) hikikomori were all really well-done, but the special effects in the Earthquake could've been done much better. This short film deserved much more budget since it starred A-list of Japanese acting like Kagawa Teruyuki, Aoi Yuu, and Takenaka Naoto. Although I liked the style of this film, it was too different from the previous two art-house style short films that created inconsistency as a whole.I guess this anthology was made for Western audience, but the first two segments were a joke to anyone familiar with Tokyo and Japanese films. In fact, those two films absolutely didn't need to be set in Tokyo or Japan. Only the Korean director made any attempt to tackle an issue of Japanese society. Considering the all-star cast these short films managed to gather, these short films were nothing but complete and utter failure.

At the outset I have to say that Leos Carax made 2 of my 10 favorite films (LES AMANTS DU PONT-NEUF and POLA X) so he's the primary reason I went to see TOKYO! I always try to avoid reading reviews before I see any film, but somewhere along the line (it has taken forever for TOKYO! to get an American release) I somehow managed to learn the bare bones plot line of Carax's MERDE contribution to TOKYO! beforehand. I wish I hadn't, as it definitely detracted from my overall enjoyment of the piece, but Carax's film sense -- which to me is one of the purest, most thrilling and most soaring in all of cinema -- still kept me enthralled. I found myself smiling throughout most of MERDE -- not just because of its humorous aspects, but with sheer joy at Carax's (as usual) often breathtaking visuals and the satisfaction felt in letting myself go along with a real artist's vision no matter where it takes me. On first viewing I'd say that MERDE could benefit from some slight pruning, and I wish the budget had been higher to enable Carax to go all out in MERDE's principal set piece (anyone who has seen MERDE will know the part I'm talking about). Lest you think, as some reviewers here have said, that MERDE is slight and one-note, rest assured there is plenty to chew on in the way of interpreting what MERDE has to say about the world today. And, needless to say, it is my favorite segment of TOKYO!Michel Gondry's INTERIOR DESIGN comes in second. I have never seen any of Gondry's other films, and I'm glad that I didn't know anything about INTERIOR DESIGN before I saw it. The film veers sharply into a strange and melancholy place at one point and the less you know about it the better off you will be. And I pray you will be spared the presence of a "hip" audience member like we had to endure tonight at the film's NYC premiere at the Alliance Francaise who laughed uproariously at the segment's sharp left turn and nearly succeeded in ruining it for us.Joon-ho-Bong's SHAKING TOKYO ends the film and is the weakest segment by far. This supposedly tender tale is overblown and overstated in just about every way and I couldn't wait for it to end. When the hero (quite literally) pushes the heroine's buttons, I wanted to gag at the heavy-handed symbolism which all but destroys whatever legitimate point about alienation that the segment seems to be trying to make.

I saw this at FantasticFest 2008. This collection of strange tales is interesting. "Interior Design" I love Gondry's style, & his entry was enjoyable as expected - a girl feels she's lost her purpose in life, & changes accordingly. Great effect of her gradual transformation."Shaking Tokyo" Well done film - after 10 years indoors, a recluse man decides to go outside for the love of a recluse woman. Mostly narrated with thoughts of the man who has been cooped up too long. An interesting character piece, well acted and shot."Merde" This film starts off strong with an incredible opening sequence of continuous action for about 1/4 of a mile in the city, but when the character gets caught the story becomes a tiresome trial that no one understands, because there is lengthy "dialogue" in a fake language with no subtitles. could have benefited from being 10 minutes shorter.