Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.
Paris, New York and even Toronto have all gotten their due in a recent wave of city-centric omnibus films that let world-renowned auteurs run wild in their streets. Yet none of these yielded anything as strange or as idiosyncratic as Tokyo!
– Jason Anderson,
Toronto Star,
5 Jun 2009
fresh:
Perhaps it is inevitable as three foreign directors train their lenses on that unique island culture of the East that all three are propelled by fantasy or science fiction, and suggest more alienation from Tokyo than affection for the great city.
– Kate Taylor,
Globe and Mail,
5 Jun 2009
rotten:
Overall, Tokyo! is two-thirds of a good movie.
– Colin Covert,
Minneapolis Star Tribune,
23 Apr 2009
rotten:
All three films deal with things hidden, or disappearing, or suppressed. But Tokyo, if anything, becomes more of a mystery after Tokyo! than it was before.
– Philip Kennicott,
Washington Post,
9 Apr 2009
fresh:
Although each portion of Tokyo! has a distinct flavor, this sampler of undercooked fish stories has a cumulative effect, one that is trippy if not toxic.