Tony Takitani
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: C+
A recent feature by Jun Ichikawa called Tony Takitani
(2004) is one some people have raved about, but is ultimately a too short, too
flat, too dull and too muddy portrait of the artistically inclined son of a
Jazz musician who deals with suppressed sexuality (gay or straight, it did not
matter after the first half hour) and deals with the breakdown of his marriage,
artistic capacities and self.
This is supposed to be one of those intelligent films
about art and life, but lands up being pretentious and so slow, that it could
have been a slide show exhibit. The
film has way too much voice over about the title character, occasionally
interrupted by actual instances of dialogue and human interaction. By the end, I did not learn much about the
underdeveloped main or side characters and thought the whole 75 minutes (ending
abruptly, but seeming much longer) had no clue on how to tell the story it
wanted to. Though the acting is not
bad, everything else pretty much is forgettable.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is much softer
and color poor than expected for a recent production, while the Dolby Digital
2.0 sound is simple stereo at best. The
combination is not much above a slide show after all. Extras only include trailers, one for this release and four more
of other Strand DVD titles.
- Nicholas Sheffo
