Tony Takitani; "The Unbearable Lightness of Shopping"

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Good call, gentlemen
Misses a great opportunity for a scene when Tony and his wife visit Europe, and she goes on a spree
Instead of showing Tony burdened with kilos of shopping bags; ( any husband with a Japanese wife could instantly relate to that ), we see wife briefly strutting her stuff on the cobblestones
Spare and profound dialog: "Tonys father was not much of a father, but then Tony was not much of a son" blithely nails down the void between the Pre-war and Post-war generations in Japan
Spare and profound music ( Ryuichi Sakamoto )
Unusual film angles: a nod to Yasuhiro Ozu perhaps, we are typically shown only closeups of interiors and only the tops of buildings
Some of the best images are the black and white still photos near the beginning, the prewar shots of the Shanghai Bund and Japan have a fairytale beauty that contrast with the unappealing cityscapes we are shown thereafter
Tony cashes up his wifes clothes, which doesn't merit further comment, but when he cashes up his fathers jazz collection "which contained quite a few rarities, he gets a good amount" ( Very Ebay, LOL! )
Right on the money; except the stack of records they show are almost all 78's, which no record store now would bother to visit and appraise, I guess they couldn't find a "real" collection ( ! )
The credits roll and leave no doubt as to where the designer clothes came from tho'
Dark and funny and very well done, Japanese culture deftly, accurately, and gently, satirised
Grins

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Topic - Tony Takitani; "The Unbearable Lightness of Shopping" - grinagog 14:43:42 05/08/06 (2)

Nice observations but I wouldn' t say this is a satire; - tinear 15:56:04 05/08/06 (1)

Re: Nice observations but I wouldn' t say this is a satire; - patrickU 05:30:15 05/09/06 (0)

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