Tony Takitani is a shy, introverted middle aged man seemingly destined to live a life of loneliness - until, that is, he meets and falls in love with a sweet and beautiful woman with a strange and insatiable obsession with fashionable clothes. After a few months of wedded bliss, tragedy strikes the couple and Tony is once again plunged back into a life of melancholic loneliness and grief. The film, written and directed by Jun Ichikawa, is based on a short story by Haruki Murakami.
"Tony Takitani" is an odd little Japanese film that, in form as well as in content, sticks very closely to those short story roots. I would say that a good 60% of the tale is conveyed through voice-over narration rather than dialogue between the main characters. The drama is so stripped down, spare and simple that it is easy to miss the broader theme that permeates the film. For this is clearly a movie about the power of obsession (both on the part of Tony and on the part of his wife), but it is all done in so deliberately low-keyed a manner that the film - unlike so many others on the topic - never overstates its message. And the performances by Issei Ogata, Rie Miyazawa (in a dual role), and Yumi Endo are equally low-keyed, subtle and understated. The movie's extremely slow pace, far from alienating or boring us, actually pulls us into the strange, virtually wordless drama that is unfolding before us. Even though it runs a mere 75 minutes in length, "Tony Takitani" feels well-rounded and complete, as it casts a hypnotic spell over its audience. Give it a chance.
"Tony Takitani" is an odd little Japanese film that, in form as well as in content, sticks very closely to those short story roots. I would say that a good 60% of the tale is conveyed through voice-over narration rather than dialogue between the main characters. The drama is so stripped down, spare and simple that it is easy to miss the broader theme that permeates the film. For this is clearly a movie about the power of obsession (both on the part of Tony and on the part of his wife), but it is all done in so deliberately low-keyed a manner that the film - unlike so many others on the topic - never overstates its message. And the performances by Issei Ogata, Rie Miyazawa (in a dual role), and Yumi Endo are equally low-keyed, subtle and understated. The movie's extremely slow pace, far from alienating or boring us, actually pulls us into the strange, virtually wordless drama that is unfolding before us. Even though it runs a mere 75 minutes in length, "Tony Takitani" feels well-rounded and complete, as it casts a hypnotic spell over its audience. Give it a chance.