The film Tokyo Godfathers written and directed primarily by Satoshi Kon (Also known for directing the highly acclaimed animated movie Paprika) is one of my favorite animated films of all time and one hell of a great story.
Set in Tokyo Japan it follows the story of three homeless people during the Christmas holidays: a teenage runaway, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum. within the first few minutes of the film they discover a baby that has been abandoned in a trash heap with a mysterious key. Touched by this cold act of abandonment Hannah vows to return the baby to its mother. From this simple plot is woven a great story full of surprises.
While a baby-finding, three-way character foil may seem an awful lot like the first Ice Age I'd like to assure you that Satoshi Kon's written a significantly more powerful story full of symbolism, dynamic characters, great drama, and magnificent subtlety. I'm torn between a desire to praise individual elements of the film and to not spoil the surprises of the story. Each of the three major characters seems to be touched fatefully by their chance discover as the trail of the infants parents leads them each to some family of their own. The themes of family and abandonment are prevalent in the tale set in the beautiful scenes of the city in winter.
With Miyuki, the youngest girl, we see a sarcastic, irreverent teenager who is seemingly afraid to return home. Hannah, the transvestite, behaves like the baby's mother through the story. Gin, apparently modeled after a samurai, is gruff and tells a story of noble suffering. Each character's story has a number of twists, including the foundling infant. As the story of its parents unfolds a final surprise makes the climax of the movie a powerful scene.
Overall Tokyo Godfathers is a prime example of fantastic writing because of the way the characters are artfully wielded through the story.
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