Tony Takitani is a short film, clocking in at 75 minutes, but it's amazing how so much can be cramped into so short a time for a feature film. Telling the story of the titular character, played by Issei Ogata, we actually go backward an additional generation to learn of Tony's father Schozaburo Takitani, played by the same actor.
The movie had segregated within itself certain milestones of events, with the dad's story first, and It took awhile before Tony took over and moved the plot forward, or should I say, plodded forward. We observe how he meets the love of his life, Eiko (Rie Miyazawa, Twilight Samurai), who, like in a Taiwanese movie The Shoe Fairy (starring Vivian Hsu), has an obsession, not only shoes, but the entire designer fashion wardrobes.
The next half of the movie tells of the sadness Tony underwent when he loses his wife, and tries his best to forget the pain. Hence his weird classified ad he posted seeking someone who fitted his wife's frame, to come work for him, but wearing his wife's clothes, giving him a sense that she's somehow around him. Totally weird, in which he agreed too. But of all the scenes I would love the last one best, as if it served as a wake up call of not living one's life in the past, but to look to the future.
Perhaps the movie has a deliberate dull feeling to it, reflective of Tony's character. As mentioned, a lot of underlying themes and various emotions run through, but ultimately, I felt it was dry and boring at times, because nothing much happens - no big action, everything's pretty nuanced and controlled, so much so that scenes drag. The movie's beautifully shot with pretty images, but ring hollow in me from a lack of emotional resonance.
Effectively, it gave you a sense of loneliness and isolation that Tony goes through when his wife is lost, and the pain that sledgehammers in the silent moments, save for the narrative voice over, done to perfection as it integrates wonderfully with the character's monologue, or conversations. Not to forget too is the pretty distracting technique of having the camera pan from left to right between scene transitions.
Recommended only for art movie lovers, who'll probably have a field day with this slow moving movie.
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