18 Movies Like Tokyo Godfathers (2003) (Page 2)

Staff & contributors

Chasing the feel of watching Tokyo Godfathers ? Here are the movies we recommend you watch right after.

This is a great movie to watch on say a Sunday. The story of three homeless people who find a newborn baby while foraging through trash on Christmas eve and decide to care for the baby and track down its parents. Middle-aged Gin, aging Hana and teenage runaway Miyuki form a makeshift family haunted by its members’ past and troubled by their present. As expected, Satoshi Kon (who also directed Paprika) delivers a beautifully animated story with unique characters and unique dynamics. The result is a very humane and moving animation, not to be missed by both Kon fans and those willing to be introduced to his style.

In my own wished-for parallel universe, French actors Vincent Cassell and Emanuelle Devos are voted the sexiest actors alive. I find them both transfixing and appealing in every role they’ve performed, and they are quite the pair here. Devos plays Carla, a put-upon assistant at a property management company. While good at her job, there is little room for her to advance her career, as she is one of the only women at her company and also has a hearing deficiency. Into her humdrum life walks ex-convict Paul (Cassell), who Carla hires as a personal assistant. It turns out that what Paul lacks in secretarial skills he makes up for in other ways. The first half of the film plays almost like a dark workplace comedy, before taking a dangerous turn towards psychological crime thriller. Overall, it’s a dark and sexy character study of two mismatched outsiders who turn out to complement each other perfectly.

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller

Actor: Bernard Alane, Bô Gaultier de Kermoal, Celine Samie, Chloé Mons, Christophe Van de Velde, Christophe Vandevelde, David Saracino, Emmanuelle Devos, Francois Loriquet, Isabelle Caubère, Nathalie Lacroix, Olivia Bonamy, Olivier Gourmet, Olivier Perrier, Patrick Steltzer, Pierre Diot, Serge Boutleroff, Serge Onteniente, Vincent Cassel

Director: Jacques Audiard

Rating: R

If I must imagine strange creatures to process grief over a parent, I would rather have it be the fluffy Totoro rather than three creepy looking Gollum-esque yokai creatures that lick legs, steal random food items, and overall act like terrible roommates. Still, there’s a certain gremlin-like charm to A Letter to Momo that could captivate animation fans. As these yokai spirit creatures push Momo to explore her new quaint island town, and as Momo eventually befriends them or force them to act better through threats, it’s precisely the sort of chaotic, whimsical adventure that can get a girl to open up, to hope again, and to be open to what life still has to offer. The pacing might deter some viewers, but A Letter to Momo still works as a touching coming-of-age journey marked by loss.

Genre: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Family, Fantasy

Actor: Cho, Daizaburō Arakawa, Ikuko Tani, Karen Miyama, Koichi Yamadera, Takeo Ogawa, Toshiyuki Nishida, Yoshisada Sakaguchi, Yuka

Director: Hiroyuki Okiura

Rating: PG

A splendid animated movie by the legendary animator and director Satoshi Kon. A team of scientists and psychologists have created a device allowing them to enter someone else's dreams. Even if the usage of this device is not allowed outside of her facility, Doctor Atsuko Chiba is using it to cure patients from depression. Things start to get complicated when a stolen device is being used by someone to implement confusing dreams in various victims, causing them to mentally break down.

Genre: Animation, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller

Actor: Akiko Kawase, Akio Otsuka, Anri Katsu, Daisuke Sakaguchi, Eiji Miyashita, Hideyuki Tanaka, Katsunori Kobayashi, Katsunosuke Hori, Koichi Yamadera, Kouichi Yamadera, Kozo Mito, Megumi Hayashibara, Mitsuo Iwata, Rikako Aikawa, Satomi Koorogi, Satomi Korogi, Satoshi Kon, Seiko Ueda, Shinichiro Ohta, Shinya Fukumatsu, Tohru Emori, Tôru Emori, Toru Furuya, Yasutaka Tsutsui

Director: Satoshi Kon

Rating: R