Tenten

It was more than twenty years ago the first time we went out to Japan to see our son, Yokohama and Tokyo. I thought that probably, I could walk around in Yokohama but I wasn't sure about Tokyo. And than I found out that the subway was great but I good really walk around easily as well. So with Joe Odagiri and Tomokazu Miura in this film it was wonderful with them both walking around. We realise that Joe leads a lazy life and built up a lot of debt and Tomokazu was the loan shark. There is only a little story (maybe like a killing) and then they go walking across Tokyo to get to a Police Station (maybe). It is a splendid tale and it is rather funny or amusing or even rather charming. There are some very odd moments and certainly it makes we smile. There is an old lady and her bike not happy but has to go around them and then there is a car. There is another old lady at the end and the guys are trying to walk backwards so that they may get younger. She thinks it silly but she tries anyway. There is much eating with noodles, ramen and some curry that might not be so spicy but it is rather crazy with some mayonnaise. Both the actors are good and I find it was rather moving and unquestionably something very different.

After a burly debt collector, Aiichiro Fukuhara (Tomokazu Miura) rams a sock down the throat of a college student while telling him that he has to pay his debt of 840,000 yen in three days or else, the last thing you expect from Satoshi Miki's Adrift in Tokyo is an offbeat and very funny comedy. Yet, in this 2007 film now getting its first release, Miki manages to pull it off and does so with considerable aplomb. A charming, at times surreal, and often very touching film, Adrift in Tokyo provides the viewer with a rare glimpse of some of the lovely back streets, shops, and shrines of Tokyo that tourists never see while creating characters that are believable and have the capacity for growth.

Abandoned by his natural parents when he was three years old, Fumiya Takemura (Jo Odagiri) is now in his eighth year of school and presumably is studying law, yet he seems to lack ambition and has no plans for the future. Miki does not tell us how he managed to amass a debt of almost $9,000 in U.S. funds but gambling is suspected since student loans are not usually collected with sock in mouth. Surprisingly, a restrained Fukuhara, who is holding Fumiya's ID and Driver's License as collateral, returns a few days later with a proposition. He will give the young man one million yen if he will walk with him across Tokyo to the Kasumigaseki district of Tokyo.

Telling him that the walk could take a few days or even a month, Fumiya does not know what to think about the offer, but not having a great many other options, he shows up the next day at the appointed place to begin their walk. Later Fumiya learns that the debt collector is planning to turn himself in to the police for the murder of his wife (which he claims was accidental) and is choosing Kasumigaseki because their police station is the best. As they begin their walk, they also begin talking and sharing their past and each character is revealed to be surprisingly sensitive and vulnerable. Meeting some bizarre characters along the way, Fukuhara revisits some of the places he visited with his wife in better days, a Shinto shrine, a favorite desert café, and a bus ride on Sunday night which he calls "the loneliest bus ride in the world." Fumiya also begins to share his thoughts and feelings, especially his loneliness in not sharing typical family outings such as going to the zoo or riding on a roller coaster. The two visit the site of his family home which is now a vacant lot and Fumiya recalls incidents from his school days like his first kiss, trying to pass off an ordinary polo shirt as a designer gift, and being paid a "fee" by a married woman for an affair that never quite came off. One of the funniest subplots involves three fellow workers of Fukuhara's wife and their half hearted attempt to find out why she has been absent from work. When they go to her house to see what has happened to her, they are caught in the middle of a film shoot and are recruited to join the cast as extras.

The final act introduces more odd characters such as Fukuhara's friend Makiko (Kyoko Koizumi) and her very strange niece Fufumi (Yuriko Yoshitaka) who is addicted to mayonnaise. Fukuhara pretends that Fumiya is his son and the warmth of the family provides a sharp contrast to Fumiya's life of isolation. Adrift in Tokyo is about small things – sharing, making connections with the world around us, simply walking and talking. Reinforced by the music of Maurice Ravel, especially Ravel's haunting Pavane pour une Infant défunte, both characters grow in ways that did not seem possible at the beginning of the film. Fumiya begins to express more emotion, and Fukuhara, in an understated way, provides emotional strength for the younger man, reminding us that happiness can often lie in moments of simple pleasure.

This is basically a bonding film with two guys, where they build a relationship by going from point A to point B. And for the most part it's a fascinating and intriguing journey that has a lot of reference to Japanese culture and entertainment. The plot revolves around a guy that is in debt and gets in trouble with the debt collector. Later the debt collector gives him a solution to the problem, by going on a walk with him to a specific destination he would give him a lot of money. The main reason that interested me on the journey was the question why the debt collector would choose that man to go on a walk with him. I really liked the style and direction of this movie, especially with it's awkward scenarios and awkward humor in this. It pretty much was a engaging movie all the way through, mainly because of the direction of it all. To anyone who enjoys watching Japanese style and humor while going from point A to point B without it being dull, should check this movie out.

8/10

Watched this movie, a comedy, with my wife on AsianCrush last night. We both really enjoyed it! The film's premise is quite odd -- a loanshark named Fukuhara offers to forgive the debt of a young man (named Fumira), if Fumira simply walks across Tokyo with him. Why is Fumira in debt, in the first place? It's never explained, and it doesn't matter. A lot in this movie is never quite explained, it just sort of happens. Just when you think you have a bead on where the story might be going (for example, did Fukuhara REALLY kill his wife, as he says?) -- a bizarre character or plot twist appears. You get the sense that maybe the director was trying to make a Japanese version of "Amelie", and it almost works. There are some items in the movie that don't quite fit, or miss their mark (Fukuhara has ominous coughing fits in the first half of the movie, but they disappear completely in the second half).... but overall, the movie is never boring or slow, and the main characters seem to have genuine chemistry between them.

Does it make sense to say that a movie is predictably unpredictable? And is that a bad thing?

This is one of those movies where for some reason two guys who don't know each other go on a journey, usually against the will of one or both. In this movie, a middle aged torpedo bribes a college kid to follow him around Tokyo. Fukuhara has decided to turn himself into the police, and wants to wander the streets of his town one last time before he goes to prison. He meets hapless college kid Fumiya when he's sent to collect some debt of his. Fukuhara offers to give Fumiya the money he sorely needs in exchange for company. This all happens early, and the majority of the movie is following their walkabout.

They walk through several parts of Tokyo while embarking on random quests born out of their conversations and random curiousness. They meet a bunch of characters on their way, and their journey is filled with weird and silly situations. They go on detours, try new food, get in a fight, and for a stretch they have to pretend to be father and son. There is a lot of humor to be found, but also a good heart, and by the end Fukuhara and Fumiya are much closer to each other than they even realize. The city itself supplies a lot of charm as they move through a few of its many wards, and you really get a sense of the diversity of such a huge metropolis.

The movie progresses like you'd expect an unlikely-buddy/journey movie to. You've probably seen the "first they don't know/like each other much and 'the other guy' has weird habits but hey they've found common ground and now they're friends" thing a dozen times, but as always with movies, it's all in the delivery. The laughs are frequent and come from the weirdest places, and the way the guys bond in this is deeper and more complex than your average (american) movie, which makes it more poignant.

Perhaps my love of silliness and randomness, and my limited knowledge of Japanese culture and filmmaking makes Tenten a funnier, more unpredictable experience to me, but I'd wager anyone who sees this will find something to enjoy.