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Jun Ichikawa (director), Tony Takitani, 2004. 75 min.
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Tony Takitani is a film about loneliness and its unwavering cloudinessโthe way it makes you want to lie down in a fetal position and not get up. I had my qualms about watching this film because Haruki Murakami, author of the story, really leads you into your emotions; he does not give you an easy way out. For many, It is much easier to turn away from difficult emotions, particularly loneliness. It is a shameful emotion, especially in the modern age, but this film offers an intimate look into what we have all been avoiding.
Tony Takitani, the son of a jazz trombonist who survives the Second World War, loses his mother shortly after she gives birth to him. He begins his life of loneliness then, while his father often travels for work. His English name โTonyโ further makes him an ill-fit in the Japanese world. To be treated differently in oneโs own society is a pointedly cruel form of rejection. He finds some peace in technical illustration, a job he can do alone. When his client Eiko enters his life, she appears to be the woman who might alleviate his loneliness, but her shopping addiction creates fissures in their relationship.
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The film is shot entirely in grainy dark colours with occasional shades of pensive blue
The film is shot entirely in grainy dark colours with occasional shades of pensive blue, where even an empty space feels claustrophobic and without escape. Tony Takitani is often shown alone, and so are other characters. He does mundane tasks around the house, and when he sits he is restless, with his legs on the chair, hunching or looking listlessly into the distance. The women in the film are not spared a sense of separation. Even when they are interacting with Takitani, there are gaps between their words, they do not look directly at each other and they all seem to be lost in their own worlds. There is a void that companionship does not fill up. The furniture, rooms, lighting, even the way plants are placed in their homes, and the slow side panning of the camera all convey a sense of hollowness.
In addition to the fine camerawork and the filmโs deliberately gradual air, the soundtrack is also memorable. โSolitudeโ by Ryuichi Sakamoto is most representative of the film, and other Sakamoto classics such as โDNAโ and โBottomโ emit a delicate sorrow. Overall, the filmโs haunting melancholy may not be for everyone, but its stylistic choice makes us pause, ponder and feel honestly.
How to cite: Huang, Yimin. โHuman Loneliness: Jun Ichikawaโs Tony Takitani.โ Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 21 Jan. 2024, chajournal.blog/2024/01/21/tony-takitani.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Yimin Huang was a full-time editor at Expat Living and an aspiring full-time writer and actress. She majored in Global Liberal Studies at New York University, where she began to write seriously, and is now a student in the MFA fiction program at the University of San Francisco. She likes to travel and take note of the idiosyncrasies of people in everyday life who sometimes inspire the content of her stories. Though a fiction writer, she believes that truth is actually stranger. Her entries โTeacherโs Petโ and โExtraโ were selected as finalists for Writing The City 2021 and 2022. She is currently working on a short story collection and looking to be published. [All contributions by Yimin Huang.]