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Movies / Upcoming / Tokyo!
Tokyo!

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Tokyo! (2009)

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Reviews Counted:60

Fresh:45

Rotten:15

Average Rating:6.3/10

Consensus: An imaginative, if uneven, love letter to a city that signals a great creative enterprise by its three contributing directors.

Rated: Not Rated

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Mar 6, 2009 Limited

Box Office: $221,597

Synopsis: In Tokyo!, three visionary directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho) come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city as it’s shaped by the... In Tokyo!, three visionary directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho) come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city as it’s shaped by the disparate people who live, work (and run amok) inside an enormous, constantly evolving, densely populated Japanese megalopolis -- the enchanting and inimitable Tokyo.

Interior Design (Michel Gondry). A young couple tries to set themselves up in Tokyo. The young man's ambition is clear -- to become a film director. His girlfriend, far more indecisive, cannot escape the vague feeling that she's losing control of her life. Directionless, both are beginning to go under in this vast city until the young woman, utterly alone, becomes the object of a bizarre transformation...

Merde(Leos Carax) A mysterious creature spreads panic in the streets of Tokyo by means of his provocative and destructive behavior. This man, dubbed "The Creature of the Sewers" by the media, arouses both passion and repulsion...until the moment he is captured... <> Shaking Tokyo (Bong Joon-Ho) For more than 10 years, he's been a hikikomori. He lives shut up in his apartment, strictly limiting all contact with the outside world to an absolute minimum. When a pizza delivery girl faints in his home during an earthquake, the unthinkable happens -- he falls in love. Shortly after, he learns that the girl has in turn become a hikikomori. Will he dare cross the threshold that separates his apartment from the rest of the world?

Rhapsody, psychogeography, urban valentine, freak show, mindwalk and many other things, Tokyo! is a fantasy in three movements that will make you see one of the world’s greatest cities -- if not any city -- with a new point of view.

In the tradition of such films as New York Stories, Night on Earth, Paris Je T'Aime and its forthcoming sequel New York I Love You, Tokyo! addresses the timeless question of whether we shape cities, or if cities shape us -- while in the process, revealing the rich humanity at the heart of modern urban life. --© Official Site [More]

Starring: Yuu Aoi, Jean-Francois Balmer, Julie Dreyfus, Ayako Fujitani

Starring: Yuu Aoi, Jean-Francois Balmer, Julie Dreyfus, Ayako Fujitani, Ryo Kase, Denis Lavant, Nao Omori, Teruyuki Kagawa, Naoto Takenaka, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa

Director: Oh Bong-Joon, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry

Director: Oh Bong-Joon, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry
Screenwriter: Oh Bong-Joon, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry
Studio: Liberation Entertainment

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Reviews for Tokyo!

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1 - 20 (sorted by source)
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Uneven but worthwhile.

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
03/05/09
Jurgen Fauth
Jurgen Fauth
About.com

A splendid and compelling head trip.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
04/09/09
Marc Savlov
Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle

The entries aren’t equally strong, of course, but each comes from a sharp outsider’s perspective, approaching Tokyo as a strange, mysterious organism that infects the populace.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
03/05/09
Scott Tobias
Scott Tobias
AV Club

If you've seen Paris, je t'aime or New York Stories, you know the rate of return on these urban omnibuses is variable, and so it is here. Go in expecting minor pleasures and you'll be fine.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
04/09/09
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

Taken as a whole, the three parts of Tokyo! provide a challenging picture of contemporary Japan.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
02/17/09
John P. McCarthy
John P. McCarthy
Boxoffice Magazine

Three directors, three films, three reasons to rethink moving to Tokyo.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
03/12/09
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Unfortunately, the weirdness is not always entertaining - in some cases it is merely boring - but there is enough going on to make this interesting for fans of art house cinema.

Full Review Source: Cinefantastique | comment Comment
03/21/09
Steve Biodrowski
Steve Biodrowski
Cinefantastique

Tickles, repulses, and beguiles

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/25/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

Though I adore all three directors in the new Tokyo!, I found little worthwhile here, except for some empty exercises in strangeness and discomfort.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
03/13/09
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Surrealism is on vivid display in this series of three shorts that form an ode to the city of Tokyo.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
08/28/08
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Only Bong's project transcends its limiting, carefully calibrated stylistic mode to achieve something substantive.

Full Review Source: Critic's Notebook | comment Comment
03/11/09
Robert Levin
Robert Levin
Critic's Notebook

Tokyo!, in lineage with (the yes, middling) New York Stories, however actually manages the exceedingly rare accomplishment of getting all three of its episodes right.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
03/11/09
George Wu
George Wu
culturevulture.net

More of a curiosity than a cohesive sampling of cinematic visions, "Tokyo!" fails to impress.

Full Review Source: Daily Radar | comment Comment
02/27/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
Daily Radar

The oddness is sort of refreshing.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
05/14/09
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Like most anthologies, Tokyo! is artistically uneven and only mildly diverting, but it gives each of its three cult directors a foundation for personal takes on this fascinating city while using such genres as sci-fi and horror.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
03/14/09
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Tokyo! is most notable for how little its title really means.

Full Review Source: Film and Felt | comment Comment
12/10/08
Gabe Leibowitz
Gabe Leibowitz
Film and Felt

Two out of three ain't bad for an evening's (very) light entertainment, set in the world's most modern, jangling metropolis, but beware Leos Carax's "Merde."

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/10/09
David Noh
David Noh
Film Journal International

At its best, the movie is a stylish spin through the Tokyo universe, a play on the psychology and realities of one of the world's most urbanized societies

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
02/26/09
Jay Antani
Jay Antani
Filmcritic.com

This triptypch of short flicks about the Japanese capital by non-Japanese filmmakers is wildly intriguing to me, as someone who has never been there but would like to visit...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
05/12/09
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

There has yet to be an anthology film made where all of the shorts are of equal quality and that's certainly the case with Tokyo!.

Full Review Source: Giant Magazine | comment Comment
03/11/09
Ethan Alter
Ethan Alter
Giant Magazine
 
 
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