i watched ichikawa jun’s tony takitani (トニー滝谷) last night over iftar. the film is based on a haruki murakami short of the same title which was published in the new yorker.

tony’s an illustrator who is a loner but not of his own design. his mother’s passing early on in his life. his father’s constant touring with his jazz ensemble. circumstances, most of them pretty much unfortunate. he sees things (art, life, anything, in fact) as they are without attaching any frills to it. it wasn’t until very late that he fell in love with a woman 15 years younger, who happens to have a penchant for clothes shopping. and when she shops, she shops.

the film actually runs like a short story, albeit not a short film (it runs slightly over one hour). if you are familiar with murakami’s writing, you’d see very little of japan in this film – bud as opposed to kirin, munching on a salad as opposed to ramen or rice balls. the film runs as a third-person narrative, often with the actors (i personally think issey ogata looks a lot like murakami-san!) speaking the final narrative portions. like reading murakami, the film flows very much like his written work. i felt comfortable dazed watching the scenes slide (literally with sweeps a la star wars) from one to another, sparingly intertwined with ryuichi sakamoto’s minimalist yet astounding piano score. everything, including the casting, witticisms and the sets, is, in fact, minimalist.

i think the film received rave reviews. i loved it probably more of having many things in tony takitani that i identify with. if you love reading his stuff, this comes highly recommended.