Bizarre films do not always make for good movies, nor do city-centered cinematic pieces always successfully capture the setting in which they take place.
But for “Tokyo!,” a series of anticipated shorts by acclaimed directors Bong Joon-Ho, Leos Carax, and Michel Gondry that all revolve around the same grand (and sometimes grandiose) metropolis, its unlikely fusion of horror, humor and fantasy is exactly what an audience needs. Both chills and thrills abound in each of these three miniworks, portraying and critiquing different sides of Tokyo in an eccentric, unapologetic way that perhaps only foreigners to the city are capable of.
Bong Joon-Ho (“The Host”) and Leos Carax (“Boy Meets Girl”) both supply amusing pieces that focus on opposing ends of the human spectrum. “Shaking Tokyo,” directed by Bong Joon-Ho, centers on the quiet but content life of a young hikkimori, or social recluse. His whole world crashes down on him, literally as well as figuratively, when a girl and an earthquake disrupt his home at the same time. Bong’s examination of the nuances in human emotion, as well as of a person’s crippling fear of the outside world, is nicely juxtaposed with long shots of the city streets as both peaceful and chaotic.
Carax’s “Merde” (translated as “shit” from French) is not as subtle in its portrayal of the frank versus the timid in a decidedly urban landscape. The main protagonist of “Merde,” a green-clad, milky-eyed pseudo-human by the same name, has no apparent problem venturing out of his underground cave in order to terrorize the more civilized, albeit less colorful, population above. Mixing wonder and delight with disgust and intrigue, Carax’s feature is an unabashed attempt to defamiliarize the trauma that accompanies social and political disorder. While “Merde” seemingly lacks a concrete identity or even a recognizable nationality, his sardonic remarks regarding race and individuality leave the viewer with an uncomfortable sense of the familiar. Using his protagonist as a vehicle, Carax shows us that even a city as widely appealing as Tokyo can look threatening from an outsider’s perspective.
But ultimately it is Michel Gondry’s “Interior Design,” the first of the three shorts, which is best at engaging the audience’s senses and sympathy with the interiors of Tokyo and its strange, yet all too human, inhabitants.
Gondry, most famous for curious indie hits such as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Be Kind Rewind,” delivers the same charismatic storytelling technique in “Interior Design.” The darkly comedic short features a young couple struggling to adapt to their new lives in a city that at times appears to swallow them whole, with a very unexpected, but very welcome, Kafka-esque twist that occurs at the end.
Combining the absurd with the common in a way that only Gondry is capable of, “Interior Design” takes us to various parts of Tokyo that are often easy to overlook ““ including the ominous cracks between buildings, the inner workings of a wrapping-paper store, and even the interior of what appears to be an apartment complex made entirely out of meticulously stacked washing machines. Gondry’s vision of a small pair in a big world is strangely eerie, sometimes to the point where we aren’t sure whether to laugh or cringe (or both, awkwardly), but it’s the odd but pervasive blend of the two that keeps us constantly on the edge of our seats, eagerly awaiting the next surprise.
Similar to the city it pays homage to, “Tokyo!” is a wonderful meshing of the ordinary with the extraordinary, a cinematic achievement as dynamic as the three directors who headline it.
““ Shirley Mak
E-mail Mak at smak@media.ucla.edu.