Jun Ichikawa's slight, lovely little drama understands the pleasure of seeing, using many quiet, patient takes to absorb its delicate visuals.
Tony Takitani (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:51
Fresh:46
Rotten:5
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Despite its deceptive wispiness, this delicately lovely and melancholy film about loneliness has a haunting power.
Theatrical Release:Jul 29, 2005 Limited
Synopsis: TONY TAKITANI is an eloquent, deftly told tale based on a short story published in The New Yorker, written by Japanese bestselling author Haruki Murakami (NORWEGIAN WOOD, KAFKA ON THE SHORE). Issey... TONY TAKITANI is an eloquent, deftly told tale based on a short story published in The New Yorker, written by Japanese bestselling author Haruki Murakami (NORWEGIAN WOOD, KAFKA ON THE SHORE). Issey Ogata stars as the title character, a simple, undemanding mechanical draftsman who lives a lonely existence. His mother died shortly after he was born, and his father (also played by Ogata) is a jazz musician who is rarely around. But when Tony meets the young and beautiful Eiko (Miyazawa Rie), he falls for her instantly, despite their 15-year age difference. Their friendship slowly develops into love, and Tony soon discovers that Eiko is a shopaholic who cannot stop buying clothing. When tragedy strikes, Tony is forced to look at his life in a whole different way. Written and directed by Jun Ichikawa (RYOMA'S WIFE, HER HUSBAND AND HER LOVER), TONY TAKITANI is told in long scenes with little or no dialogue; sometimes the characters themselves finish parts of the narration, which is delivered by Hidetoshi Nishijima at a soft, deliberate pace. The intelligent script, which is extremely faithful to Murakami's original story, is accompanied by Ryuichi Sakamoto's gorgeous, spare score and Hirokawa Taishi's stark, captivating cinematography. [More]
Starring: Issey Ogata, Miyazawa Rie, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Shinohara Takahumi
Starring: Issey Ogata, Miyazawa Rie, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Shinohara Takahumi, Shihodo Wataru, Kino Hana, Kusano Toru, Oyamada Sayuri, Tanigawa Saho
Director: Jun Ichikawa
Director: Jun Ichikawa
Screenwriter: Jun Ichikawa
Producer: Ishida Motoki
Studio: Strand Releasing
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Reviews for Tony Takitani
Impressively reduces Murakami's hard-boiled word world to a floating-picture world. But like Lish's edits of Ray Carver, it mutes a story that was nearly mute to begin with.
... like an impressionistic documentary of a man resigned to his loneliness.
Ichikawa brilliantly captures Murakami's blend of whimsy, irony and melancholy, while finding intelligent and inventive ways to convert the author's verbal idiosyncrasies to a visual medium.
An aesthetically appealing anatomy of loneliness and aloneness by a Japanese filmmaker with a keen eye for the nuances of human nature.
It's a graceful, odd experiment... I'm still not sure if it works, but I'm glad it exists.
Jun Ichikawa's film is a classic example that not all literature is capable of making the transition to film...
Whether you view it as a metaphor for a country or a singular study of the human condition, Tony Takitani explores the borders between solitude and loneliness, hunger and consumption, memory and loss.
Tony Takitani runs only about 75 minutes but is so well and deftly crafted that it couldn’t be a minute more…or less.
...unmistakably an art piece and as Japanese as a Japanese garden...the movie itself seems like an obsession.
Scarcely satisfies, yet it lingers -- limpidity of image along with imperceptible epiphanies
The characters and narrative are so lightly sketched, the film's gravity sneaks up on the viewer through the gradual force of its form and rhythm.
Heedlessly drawn to Eiko ... Tony takes a step onto spiritually hollow ground and falls through.... That's what this kind of ironic protagonist does, from Adam on down....
It creates a mood that sweeps over you, that kind of movie works better on the big screen. On the small screen, it doesn't have the oomph to demand your attention.
Jun Ichikawa's quiet film has a power that resonates. It gives loneliness a cinematic canvas.
It's a quiet dream of a movie, a vision of loneliness giving way to love, then to loneliness again; it's like Vertigo remade in a sedately haunted style of Japanese lyricism.
Ichikawa evokes the heady and suffocating effect of the past playing irrevocable catch-up with itself.
The Japanese movie is tranquil, smoothly connecting its scenes with gradual pans from one image to the next, accompanied by spare music that sounds like early morning and loneliness.
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December 13, 2005:
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