Merry Christmas
And happy holidays
I searched high and low for a good Christmas movie from Asia
And it's not easy
The lack of Christmas movies in Asia is to be expected
The festival just doesn't carry the same cultural or religious meaning there
Japan mostly just celebrates a commercialized version of Christmas
Some may say that's also the case here in North America
To which I can only say
"All right, it's a good point"
Like in the west, the rampant consumerism
And the lack of spirituality
Added with the dominance of western culture
And fading traditions
Had people in Asia somewhat concerned with their identities
So it is no surprise that the best Asian Christmas movie
Sets itself around that concern
Written and directed by the legendary Satoshi Kon
Tokyo Godfathers is an sit-com anime
In which three homeless people find an abandoned baby on Christmas
And decide to journey across Tokyo to help find her parents
It's a heartfelt yet hilarious story containing themes of family
Regret, redemption
And for the purpose of this episode
How Christmas and religions fit into modern day Japan
It's gonna be a big topic
So, let's get right into it.
First, let's set the stage
What does Tokyo look like in your mind?
Well, to Kon, it appears to be
Commercial signs
Lots and lots of them
Dominating the skyline of Tokyo
Commercial sign is a bit of a motif in this film
It's how the opening credits are shown
Billboards
Store signs
And even the side of a bus
Even the homeless tent is built out of a traveling advertisement billboard
Everywhere you go
Giant commercials follow
According to World Bank
Japan is currently the third largest consumer market in the world
Consumerism is the lifeblood of Japan
Through the use of signs, Kon paints a realistic yet worrying Tokyo
In which commercialism literally build homes
And cemetery offerings are commercial products
Understanding this brings us back to the opening moments of this film
Here, we see a young runaway girl
Spitting on people from the rooftop
The unsuspecting victim looks up
And see this sign, which says
"Tears of Angel"
Similarly, there's a drag queen nightclub called Angel Tower
These choices show that
Commercialism is so woven into Japanese society
It even co-opted religious imageries into it
On the other hand
A traditional Japanese market that used to have a religious significance
Is now more or less a commercial attraction
In this film
Tokyo is basically Christmas
Where commercialism superseded religions
Now that we have our location decked out
It's time for our characters
We have Hana, the ex-drag queen who was abandoned by his parents
Gin, who lost his daughter due to debt
And Miyuki, a girl who ran away from home
Because her cat was given away by her father
All three characters lost something before the start of the film
And through their journey
They will learn to resolve these loses
For Hana, it's his birth parents
"I never knew my real mother"
He does, however, has a foster mother
Who has been nice to him
This complicated relationship with his parental figures
Is perhaps what shaped his view on religion
A view of which, as you may expect
Is shared among many Japanese people
Now, in the film, Hana clearly believes in God
"Kyoko is God's messenger."
"We're her servants"
But his religion is never explicitly specified
We see Hana attends church sermon with joy
Happily eats from a Buddhist cemetery
And prays at a Shinto shrine
Hana believes in a god
But of which god, it matters little to him
In this scene, Miyuki is also doing the new year pray with Hana
Miyuki ran away because her cat was given away
Her cat, interestingly, is named Angel
Without her Angel
Miyuki lost faith in her home and ran away
So it's unsurprising that she is an atheist
As we see her mocking her religious mother
In a sense, Miyuki is practicing the cultural side of shinto religion
Praying, not as a follower
But as a religious tourist
FInally, we have Gin
A middle age man who was crippled by debt
And lost contact with his daughter
Gin's daughter was named Kiyoko
The pure child, the holy child
The lack of connection to the holy child
Is perhaps why Gin has no faith in
Well, anything, really
Similar to Miyuki, he is seen making fun of religion
"Not me, thanks"
"Be quite!"
But unlike her, he doesn't even practice the cultural side of it
When faced with the choice between magic and an ambulance
"Ambulance..."
"Well! Aren't you rude!"
As Hana was eating from the cemetary out of necessity
Gin is seen drinking a bottle of wine for pleasure
Combined together, the three represent over half of the Japanese population
The half that self-identifies as non-religious
Now it's worth noting that non-religious in this context doesn't mean atheist
Hana may believe in god
But he doesn't follow a specific religious organization
And that puts him in this category
Religious belief in Japan is much more agnostic
It exists in this limbo where people practice it without believing it
Or believing it without following it
To these three, religion is used more as a resource and an attraction
Faith, is a sort of there but not really kind of thing
That all changed, when they meet Baby Jesus
I have to clarify that this is not actually Baby Jesus
Nor does the baby symbolizes Christianity
Yes, the location the baby was found
Draws some visual similarities to the nativity scene
In a... "je ne sais quoi" sort of way
But the baby also has a birthmark
That resembles an Urna
A common Buddhist symbol
And the baby is a girl
Which is either to match Amaterasu of Shinto religion
Or a deliberate choice to avoid matching any specific idol
Either way, I believe the baby here
Represents the general concept of faith and spirituality
Instead of any specific religion
Anyway, three homeless people who lost their touch with their spirituality
Find an abandoned baby in a recycling dump
And decide to journey across Tokyo
To find her mother
What follows is a series of miraculous coincidences
Let's take Gin's side of story as an example
They go on a train
The train halts
So they walk
They save a Yakuza boss
The boss owns the nightclub the baby mother worked in
The boss' daughter is getting married today
The three attends
Only to realize the groom is the loan shark
Who put Gin in debt
Breaking his family
Gin got drunk
Tries to beat him up
But then an assissination happens out of nowhere
Separating the three
Gin saw a hobo died
Then he got beaten up by delinquents himself
A bunch of other miracles happen
And Gin bumps into her daughter
Let's roll back a little
Gin started off wanting nothing to do with the baby
"I wonder what the baby's name is."
"John Doe"
His nihilistic lack of love for people reaches the breaking point
When he sees the loan shark that destroyed his life
In an expensive wedding
Gin once again faces a problem that is caused by
What else but money
Money problem destroyed his family
And if he had attacked the loan shark
He'll surely be killed by the Yakuza
So, it is a complete miracle that an unrelated assassination attempt
Interrupts him
Now seperated
Gin walks down the alley and witnessed the death of a hobo
And later, he is attacked and left to die as well
When facing his mortality
Gin finally realizes that he does care about the baby
He can't care for his daughter
The least he can do is to care for an abandoned child
And thus, he has a new found love for this makeshift "family"
Guided by even more complete coincidences
He ends up bumping into his daughter in a hospital
Resolving the biggest regret in his life
Other characters also go through their own journey
While Miyuki didn't become homeless for monetary reasons
She ran away because she had lost her trust and faith in her family
In other words, Tokyo Godfathers is showing us the danger
Of indulgence in only the physical
Be it money
Or the act of losing your cat
Should the characters maintain their faith in their families
They wouldn't have been homeless
As their families are always ready to reconcile
It is only when they found the baby
And through her
Re-engage themself with the unseen side of things
Love, hope, spirituality, whatever you call it
Only then, do they managed to sort out their lives
In effect, Tokyo Godfathers is a film not unlike many other Christmas classics
Namely, A Christmas Carol
"Humbug"
But for Japan
The rapid commercialization of what was once spiritual
May have worried Satoshi Kon
And this concern is echoed by other Japanese artists as well
At the same time, however
There are also people who no longer see the need for a god in modern society
"What we wish for is..."
"A world without gods"
Tokyo Godfathers offers a more... neutral option
Hana is the only spiritual person of the three
And also happens to be the most pro-active in this journey
Jumping to his death to save this baby
Just as he is about to fall
He is saved by a violent gust of wind
That can only be explained as... a Christmas miracle
As he admires the beauty of a sunrise
And procees to land gracefully
You know Hana is the type that doesn't expect a gift from Santa
But appreciates it...
When he does receive one