Tokyo!

Tokyo! (2008)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0976060/]

The Gist:
Okay so hard to talk about this film as a whole. It's made up of three short films, and even they work as a collective they're all so unique that you can't really lump them together. To start with, Gondry's film was pretty excellent, really abstract, but for me he ruined it a bit in the ending (not to spoil anything but he has the girl narrating a letter that sort of tries to tie things together neatly and just feels forced). Other than that small issue though, his film was fantastic. The second film, which everyone who's seen this seems to like the best, didn't hit me quite the same. It's kind of a strange retelling of the monster film, giving the monster more of a humanistic aspect and I might like it more with repeat viewings but right now felt too distant and lacking tonal depth. The third film, by Bong Joon-Ho (badass Korean filmmaker who made "The Host") was easily my favorite. In fact, it followed a similar pattern as Gondry's film, where you have light moments of surrealism that at a pivotal moment in the film becomes full on surreal. Also the ending feels just a tiny bit forced again, but not nearly as much as Gondry's and it ends on a quiet note that makes it up for me for some reason. As a whole, this is an amazing collection of films and it makes me sad that this sort of thing isn't done more often. I feel like I would like to see films of all lenghts, because some stories are wonderful and are just not feature length stories. It happens. Why can't I see those in my theater, why do I have to be forced to see features just because its more reasonable for mass consumption? ....I need to have access to more film festivals, I need good short films.