Christmas in Tokyo, Japan. Three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum. While foraging through some trash, they find an abandoned newborn. Hana, the transvestite with delusions of being a mother, convinces the others to keep it overnight. The next day, using a key found with the baby, they start tracking down the parents, with many adventures along the way.

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
  • Rating: (7,679 votes)
  • Tagline:Meet the ultimate dysfunctional family. »
  • Runtime:92 minutes
  • Directors: Satoshi Kon, Shôgo Furuya
  • Country:Japan
  • Actors:
    Gin (voice)
    Toru Emori
    Miyuki (voice)
    Aya Okamoto
    Hana (voice)
    Yoshiaki Umegaki
    Oota (voice)
    Shôzô Îzuka
    Mother (voice)
    Seizô Katô
    Yasuo (voice)
    Hiroya Ishimaru
    Aged Man (voice)
    Ryûji Saikachi
    Miyuki's Father (voice)
    Yûsaku Yara
    Sachiko (voice)
    Kyôko Terase
    Kiyoko, Gin's Daughter (voice)
    Mamiko Noto
  • Genres:Adventure, Animation, Drama, Comedy
  • Producers:
    Shinichi Kobayashi
    executive producer  
    Taro Maki
    executive producer  
    Masao Maruyama
    producer  
    Masao Takiyama
    executive producer  
  • Plot: Christmas in Tokyo, Japan. Three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum. While foraging through some trash, they find an abandoned newborn. Hana, the transvestite with delusions of being a mother, convinces the others to keep it overnight. The next day, using a key found with the baby, they start tracking down the parents, with many adventures along the way. Written by Jon Reeves <jreeves@imdb.com>
Tokyo Godfathers
  • User's comment:Sensitive and beautiful by itamarscomix

    Having suffered through the painfully pretentious and shallow, pseudo-Lynchian mess of Perfect Blue, I was understandably skeptical about watching another film by Satoshi Kon (I have not yet seen Millennium Actress, but am now quite intrigued to do so). Tokyo Godfathers (a title which at first struck me as belonging most probably to a pseudo-psychological mafia thriller) was not only a pleasant surprise; it was the best anime feature I've seen in many years, probably since Ghost in the Shell, excluding anything by Hayao Miyazaki. Like the classic Grave of the Fireflies, Tokyo Godfathers struck me as unusual in the fact that it draws much from European cinema – English, Irish, German or Italian – while most commercial anime features try to mimic American film-making. But while Grave of the Fireflies was painfully sad and bleak, Tokyo Godfathers is irresistibly charming, and manages to be funny and incredibly touching at once like few anime films – few animated films, at that – ever achieve.

    Tokyo Godfathers is remarkably non-violent, as pacifistic perhaps as Miyazaki's films. You won't find any grand futuristic structures or fantastical creatures here; in fact, the animation may seem crude at first. But the characters are where the film really hits its mark. Kon triumphs, like in his excellent series Paranoia Agent, by not succumbing to the accepted prototypes and standards of how characters should look in an anime film; the lead characters in the film are all gorgeously ugly, in a way that even Miyazaki had not yet dared to do. Even the child character, Miyuki, is chubby, and not cute and beautiful in the way little girls 'should' be, by the unwritten laws of anime. Thus, Kon's characters are believable and true to life; they are three anti-heroes, outcasts from society, each running away from their pasts. Especially charming is Hana (AKA 'Uncle Bag'), the golden-hearted transvestite, who supplies much of the film's comic relief but also some of its most touching moments.

    Tokyo Godfathers – despite some far-fetched but amusing plot twists and coincidences – is at its core a very simple story, a beautiful little story about family, love and friendship. Few anime films are so unpretending; and thus, few anime films manage to be so strong. Watch Tokyo Godfathers; you'll laugh, you'll cry. And believe you me, ten minutes into it you'll forget it was ever animated.


  • Quotes: Hana: If you like the police so much, get THEM to adopt you! Hana: I am a mistake made by God. In my heart, I am a woman. Gin: Women can have children.
  • Also known as: Ükskord Tokyos (Estonia - festival title), Héroes al rescate (Argentina - video title), Oi nonoi tou Tokyo (Greece - DVD title), Rodzice chrzestni z Tokio (Poland - imdb display title), Tokiói keresztapák (Hungary - imdb display title), Tokyo godfathers - löytölapsen arvoitus (Finland - TV title),

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