Tokyo Godfathers

1.5/4

Starring: the voices of Toru Emori, Aya Okamoto, Yoshiaki Umegaki

Rated PG-13 for Thematic Elements, Violent Images, Language and Some Sexual Material

Meet the ultimate dysfunctional family
That's the tagline for "Tokyo Godfathers," an extremely warped Christmas movie.  The protagonists are three homeless people, and during their time between Christmas and New Year's, they run into crazy adventures ranging from a mafia hit to a drag club and a bizarre car chase.

This sounds like a great movie, and I'm sure it could be.  The problem is that I didn't care about anyone in this movie.  The characters are undeveloped, and their backstories (when reveales) fail to make them interesting.

The homeless trio is Gin (Emori), a grumpy drunk who became homeless after he got caught throwing a bike race to save his wife and unborn child (who later died), Miyuki (Okamoto), a sassy runaway, and Hana (Umegaki), a devoutly Christian transgender.  While arguing among themselves, they hear a baby crying.  Someone abandoned a baby amid some trash, and Hana insists that they should track down the parents and return the child.

"Tokyo Godfathers" wants to be a heartwarming, if slightly dark, Christmas comedy.  Unfortunately, it's not really either.  There are some amusing bits here and there, but that's it.  The interest level in this movie quickly fades away, and the film becomes a real trial.

The voice acting is unmemorable.  None of the actors does anything truly interesting with their characters, and some of the jokes and gags don't land because of their delivery.

At least the film is fast moving, and the chase scene at the end is kind of fun.  But that's little consolation when the protagonists are so boring.

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