Tony Takitani's name was indeed that: Tony Takitani.
With these words Murakami began his sole bit of fictional writing in the year 1990 and although 1990 might have been a bit dry for Murakami in the realm of fiction, he also produced much travel writing, translations, and was busy editing his complete works, the one story he produced was a gem. A rare third person piece by a writer who normally writes in the first person, "Tony Takitani" within its scant twenty pages in the original Japanese is a broad sweeping work that not only tells the story of the protagonist Tony Takitani, but the one of his father, Takitani Shozaburo, as well.
As stated above Tony Takitani is an important story for a number of reasons. First it displays Murakami's incorporation of the third person narrative which goes beyond some of the limitations of first person narratives and second it also displays Murakami's continued research into Japan's wartime past which was first displayed in his third novel A Wild Sheep Chase and would come to full culmination with the release of the massive, three volume The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. However, the true power of this story, like his other works, is the interpersonal relationships experienced by the protagonist.
Murakami's protagonists are normally nameless; usually we only know them by the personal pronoun Boku, white collar workers who do not go out of their way to make an impact on society. They enjoy beer, sex, baseball, and the company of their friends, but they are normally a bit cut off from society and oftentimes prefer an isolated existence over interactions with others. Tony Takitani, however, is the epitome of the Murakami protagonist. Ignored by his jazz musician father and ostracized from society because of his Westernized name, he brought memories of the Occupation period to the fore when he told others his name and he was often called a half breed by his classmates, Tony Takitani bore into himself and dedicated his life to art, especially drawing extraordinarily detailed pictures of machines and plants. During the late 1960s his artwork was scoffed at by his classmates because they were considered cold and lacked political ideology, but Tony Takitani ignored their criticisms and went on to become a successful commercial illustrator.
Seemingly content, Tony Takitani's shell is completely shattered when he meets Konuma Eiko, she only has a name in the movie, fifteen years Tony Takitani's junior, Eiko's presence fills the illustrator's emptiness and makes him realize how truly lonely he was. Not wanting to go on without Eiko in his life, Tony confesses his love to her on their fifth date, but he learns that she has a long time boyfriend, and she tells him to give her some time to think about it. Tony Takitani grants her wish, but on their next meeting he informs her that he cannot go on without her and the two eventually marry.
With his loneliness extinguished, Tony Takitani for the first three months of his marriage is fearful that he is going to lose his young wife and be alone once more. However, she stays with him and they fill up the emptiness that resides within each other. Yet, there is one problem. Tony Takitani's wife is a clotheshorse to the extreme, buying countless pieces of big brand name clothing. Tony Takitani is not concerned about the money, what he is concerned about is the obsessive way in which his wife shops. Because she loves her husband deeply, Eiko one day goes to return a couple of pieces of clothing One of the most common criticisms one hears about a movie based on a fictional work is how the film pales in comparison to the fictional piece. Maybe it is because of the brevity of the original short story, but, in my opinion, Ichikawa Jun has perfectly distilled the short story into film keeping the original piece's deep sense of melancholy intact. Filmed in grainy, dark colors and scored by the incomparable Sakamoto Ryuichi, Tony Takitani does don't release its viewer from the gray, ennui filled world of the title protagonist. With little dialogue between the characters and with a narrator telling most of the story, with the characters often finishing his sentences, Tony Takitani truly feels like a visual short story.
I maybe biased because I am a huge fan of Murakami Haruki, but I believe that Tony Takitani is truly a beautiful film that is able to effectively display the fictional world of an author who has impacted many readers in Japan and abroad on celluloid. Check it out if you get the chance.
With these words Murakami began his sole bit of fictional writing in the year 1990 and although 1990 might have been a bit dry for Murakami in the realm of fiction, he also produced much travel writing, translations, and was busy editing his complete works, the one story he produced was a gem. A rare third person piece by a writer who normally writes in the first person, "Tony Takitani" within its scant twenty pages in the original Japanese is a broad sweeping work that not only tells the story of the protagonist Tony Takitani, but the one of his father, Takitani Shozaburo, as well.
As stated above Tony Takitani is an important story for a number of reasons. First it displays Murakami's incorporation of the third person narrative which goes beyond some of the limitations of first person narratives and second it also displays Murakami's continued research into Japan's wartime past which was first displayed in his third novel A Wild Sheep Chase and would come to full culmination with the release of the massive, three volume The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. However, the true power of this story, like his other works, is the interpersonal relationships experienced by the protagonist.
Murakami's protagonists are normally nameless; usually we only know them by the personal pronoun Boku, white collar workers who do not go out of their way to make an impact on society. They enjoy beer, sex, baseball, and the company of their friends, but they are normally a bit cut off from society and oftentimes prefer an isolated existence over interactions with others. Tony Takitani, however, is the epitome of the Murakami protagonist. Ignored by his jazz musician father and ostracized from society because of his Westernized name, he brought memories of the Occupation period to the fore when he told others his name and he was often called a half breed by his classmates, Tony Takitani bore into himself and dedicated his life to art, especially drawing extraordinarily detailed pictures of machines and plants. During the late 1960s his artwork was scoffed at by his classmates because they were considered cold and lacked political ideology, but Tony Takitani ignored their criticisms and went on to become a successful commercial illustrator.
Seemingly content, Tony Takitani's shell is completely shattered when he meets Konuma Eiko, she only has a name in the movie, fifteen years Tony Takitani's junior, Eiko's presence fills the illustrator's emptiness and makes him realize how truly lonely he was. Not wanting to go on without Eiko in his life, Tony confesses his love to her on their fifth date, but he learns that she has a long time boyfriend, and she tells him to give her some time to think about it. Tony Takitani grants her wish, but on their next meeting he informs her that he cannot go on without her and the two eventually marry.
With his loneliness extinguished, Tony Takitani for the first three months of his marriage is fearful that he is going to lose his young wife and be alone once more. However, she stays with him and they fill up the emptiness that resides within each other. Yet, there is one problem. Tony Takitani's wife is a clotheshorse to the extreme, buying countless pieces of big brand name clothing. Tony Takitani is not concerned about the money, what he is concerned about is the obsessive way in which his wife shops. Because she loves her husband deeply, Eiko one day goes to return a couple of pieces of clothing One of the most common criticisms one hears about a movie based on a fictional work is how the film pales in comparison to the fictional piece. Maybe it is because of the brevity of the original short story, but, in my opinion, Ichikawa Jun has perfectly distilled the short story into film keeping the original piece's deep sense of melancholy intact. Filmed in grainy, dark colors and scored by the incomparable Sakamoto Ryuichi, Tony Takitani does don't release its viewer from the gray, ennui filled world of the title protagonist. With little dialogue between the characters and with a narrator telling most of the story, with the characters often finishing his sentences, Tony Takitani truly feels like a visual short story.
I maybe biased because I am a huge fan of Murakami Haruki, but I believe that Tony Takitani is truly a beautiful film that is able to effectively display the fictional world of an author who has impacted many readers in Japan and abroad on celluloid. Check it out if you get the chance.