Tony Takitani (Hong Kong Version) VCD

Miyazawa Rie soon enters the film, portraying Eiko, a beautiful woman with a smart sense of style and a secret obsession. Eventually, the two get married, and Tony finally recognizes what his life has been missing all these years. As their marriage progresses, Eiko's obsession with purchasing designer clothes on a daily basis begins to trouble Tony. When confronted, she promises to amend her shopaholic ways, but finds that going cold turkey isn't as easy as she'd hoped. It's then that the film takes a sharp turn, leaving Tony puzzled at what to do next.

In terms of tone, style, and execution, Tony Takitani is most assuredly an "art film" in the broadest sense of the term. While a fan may laud the movie for its languid pace, elliptic style, and ambiguous ending, it's easy to see how a detractor could turn these compliments into ample fodder for complaints. Yet for those who are willing to dial back their preconceived notions of what a film should be, Tony Takitani will definitely be a memorable cinematic experience. Director Ichikawa Jun gives the audience a lot to digest, and thus, it's the kind of movie that's likely to benefit from multiple viewings.

To mimic the Murakami short story, Ichikawa employs some low key narration by Nishijima Hidetomi that creates a sense of distance from the events as they occur, giving the film an almost fable-like quality. Yet even as this "distance" exists, at certain key moments, this voiceover intertwines with the dialogue of the actual characters. Another obvious touch by the director is his decision to have the camera constantly pan to the right in many scenes, particularly the ones detailing Tony's formative years. In this way, characters will slowly emerge out of the right side of the frame only to disappear as the camera scans past them. This technique creates a certain kind of tension in what we are seeing since it is almost as if we are overhearing a conversation or being exposed to just a snippet of someone's life. The sense of anticipation grows because the moment seems fleeting—we know exactly when the scene will be over, thus, what we "need to know" from the movie is contained in that one pass of the camera.

But the film isn't all about technique and style. This is a picture preoccupied with feelings of detachment, isolation, and loneliness. Tony Takitani celebrates love, yet in the tradition of almost every Wong Kar-Wai movie ever made, love is shown also to be something that can be debilitating, even destructive, especially when one is separated from the object of his or her affection. The metaphor of Eiko's clothes as ghosts evokes a discussion of the power of memory. Ghosts, like certain painful memories, seem to haunt us for the longest time. But as the movie explores, what happens when we finally exorcise those ghosts for good- will we feel better or somehow worse? So haunting is Tony Takitani, that once you've seen it, the memory of it will stay with you, whether you like it or not.

By Calvin McMillin - LoveHKFilm.com