It’s a Christmas Eve, Gin a gruff alcoholic who is said to be a biker, Hana an okama and a former drag queen and Miyuki a runaway child of a police officer. While Hana is looking for Miyuki’s present, he stumbled upon a baby, thinking that it is a gift from God in this time of the year. The other two tried to convince that to give the baby to the police but Hana insisted in taking take of the child.
Hana later names the baby as Kiyoko, which means, “pure child” due to Christmas being the purest day of the year. So, the other two decided to take care of the child and we learned more about Gin when he was able to handle the child properly. This is when we learned that he is once a father and had a daughter but due to some strange circumstances back then, he ends up being a homeless.
Because Gin knew that they can never give the child a good life, Hana was later convinced to look for the child’s parent. After getting some clues from the cardboard box where they found Kiyoko, and used it to look for her parents. While looking for her parents, we learned more about Miyuki.
Miyuki is once fat and takes care of a cat that she named, “Angel.” But because Angel suddenly disappeared and blames his father, she accidentally stabbed him and left her house. Later on, we learned why Hana ended up being homeless. After being fired in the club where she worked due to her unruly behavior, he stayed with his boyfriend, Ken. After he died, he became homeless.
Will the trio of homeless bums find the mother of the child? It is for you to find out.
On to the review, since most anime films that I watched are not, err, “realistic,” I will review this film as a live-action and at the same time as an anime. In terms of the story, it is something I never thought it would happen, a modern take on the three wise men. Instead of seeing three wise men coming from the East, we have three homeless bums coming from Tokyo! Instead of looking for a child, they looked for the mother of the child!
Because of this, the concept of the film was fun to watch and something you must watch on a Christmas day, but since I watched it not on a Christmas, I will try my best to make this review being alive in the sprit of Christmas.
The trio was dysfunctional. We have an alcoholic, a former drag queen and a runaway child who stabbed her father for shallow reasons. It was fun to watch considering that, we are given the assumption that these guys know each other for quite sometime, making them a different kind of family and now, they are looking for a child’s real family.
One of the things that I liked about this film is the situations the trio faced while looking for the child’s parents. Some of those scenes might bring up the character’s past or might bring up the character’s emotional side, making them real and not a bunch of anime characters that are animated to by dysfunctional.
It is a thing that is worth praising about Satoshi Kon’s work, it felt like his script would work well if it is live-action but there is something about it being in animation that captivates the audience in some way. While watching the film, it felt like I am not watching anime characters, but real actors.
Speaking about the animation, it was a little rough in some point but the roughness made the characters more human in every way while trying to make the animation as smooth as possible.
Since the film was set in Christmas, let’s talk about the atmosphere. Sure, it was Christmas but we are given a different perspective of the celebration, we saw the gloomy side of the celebration in the form of three bums whose lives are about to change. About the gloomy atmosphere, it fits well for the film. It made Christmas a celebration worth celebrating in this time of age. As you can see, it seems like Christmas right now is being celebrated for the material things we will receive. The film returned the feel of Christmas that it is about the celebration of the birth of the Child that came from heaven to save us… and it is working miracles in our everyday lives.
About the miracles, it is one of the fun things about this film, the miracles that are happening around the group, though not supernatural but something worth noting for. In the film, it felt like Kiyoko is one lucky child even if the irony of it is that her parents abandoned her.
The film gave an impression that God moves in mysterious ways that when they are looking for Kiyoko’s parents, we saw various events happened to our trio. Some were good while some are not that good but those not so good events gave closure to some of the characters in the film. Take for instance, Gin and her daughter who is also named, Kiyoko and Hana and the person he considered his mother.
Overall, the film is meant to be seen in the happiest time of the year, Christmas. However, since we are now in the –ber months, you might as well want to watch it.
Note: If you are, an international audience who is reading this review, here in the Philippines, the –ber months signifies that Christmas is near, and so, some houses started decorating for the said event. Heck, some shops both sell Halloween décor while being surrounded with Christmas décor!
The great thing about this film is that the humor and drama are well balanced and this film is best to be seen with the whole family. The film gives us a different perspective of the entire celebration of Christmas, in the perspective of those who does not receive much. Even if you are neither an anime fan nor a fan of Satoshi Kon’s work, this film might get you interested in seeing more of his works because you can easily relate yourself with his works. Heck, I might give Paprika a try, a film that is said to be like Inception… except it’s older and it’s an anime!
One of the things that make this film great is the life lessons you can pick up in this film. You should watch this masterpiece this Christmas!