Imatoshi became a master figure with four animated films.
If he had not died of illness, he would have become the fourth world-renowned Japanese animation master after Hayao Miyazaki, Katsuyo Otomo, and Mori Oshii.
Of his four animated films, the one that least resembles Imatoshi is Tokyo Godfather, but this is the one that most resembles Imatoshi himself.
Imatoshi once said: "In my works so far, I think the quality of Tokyo Godfather is the highest. In that regard, this film is my favorite work. ”
The story rhythm of "The Godfather of Tokyo" makes people look very comfortable.
Akin is a middle-aged uncle who always likes to avoid responsibility, addicted to gambling and alcoholism, which leads to the creditor coming to the door, but he abandons his wife and daughter and becomes a tramp.
The young girl Miyuki is somewhat willful and does not understand her parents, and after her father, who is a policeman, sends away her pet cat, she impulsively stabs her father and runs away from home.
Ah Hua is a male and female demon, he is gentle at heart, positive and optimistic, used to work in The Base Bar, and then left because of beating people, after the unexpected death of his lover, he has been wandering the streets.
Homeless people, shemales, and runaway girls form a strange temporary family.
On Christmas Eve, in order to give a gift to Miyuki, Ah Hana accidentally finds an abandoned baby while picking up books in the garbage heap.
Daiharu takes the baby back to the cardboard room and names her Kiyoko, and after a night of thought struggle, they decide to find Kiyoko's parents.
According to the existing clues, a photo of a young couple, behind a faint visible high-rise building, several nightclub business cards, signed Sachiko, they are non-stop.
During the search, they rescue the gang boss trapped under the car, and the person who is about to become his son-in-law is the owner of the nightclub, and he learns from him that Sachiko has long since left.
Later, at the wedding banquet, the foreign man assassinates the gang boss, and after failure, he holds Miyuki and Kiyoko hostage.
Ah Hana desperately pursues, Ah Jin refuses to follow, after separation, Ah Hana finds Miyuki and Kiyoko, Akin meets the homeless old man, and learns Sachiko's address from him.
The three reunite but find that Sachiko's residence has long been empty, and Ah Hana is so anxious that she vomits blood, but meets Ah Jin's nurse daughter in the hospital.
Ah Hana and Miyuki choose to leave, and save a woman who wants to commit suicide by diving by the bridge.
It turns out that she is Sachiko, who tells them that her boyfriend threw away the child without her own knowledge, and they gave Kiyoko to her.
But this is not the case, Akin ran over to tell the truth, Kiyoko was sachiko stole from the hospital, and the three of them caught up with Sachiko on the roof.
Sachiko wants to jump off the building with the child in her arms, and Miyuki grabs her, but Kiyoko slips out of her arms, and Aka jumps down to catch Kiyoko, fortunately grabbing the banner and surviving.
In the end, Kiyoko returned to her biological parents.
At the strong request of Kiyoko's parents, a policeman led them to visit Ahana, Kim, and Miyuki lying on a hospital bed, the door opened, and the leading policeman turned out to be Miyuki's father, and Kiyoko, who was held in her arms, smiled.
This is the overview of "Tokyo Godfather", which seems simple, but in fact, Imatoshi plays with non-linear narratives.
There is a main line in the film, that is, the search for the parents of the abandoned baby Kiyoko, which is divided into three sub-lines of the past story of Ah Hana, Akin, and Miyuki.
These three sub-lines became sub-main lines, each divided into a branch line.
Ah Jin meets the homeless old man and connects the line to find Kiyoko's mother, Sachiko, as well as the line that Ah Hua passed.
Ah Hana connects the encounter between Ah Jin and the nurse's daughter, Miyuki is kidnapped by a foreign man, and with Miyuki understanding the parents' difficult line through them.
At the same time, there is a dark line in "Tokyo Godfather", that is, Miyuki's father is responsible for investigating the theft of the baby (Kiyoko).
After finally returning Kiyoko to her biological parents, her parents, in order to thank ah hua for their righteous husband or mother, accidentally meet their daughter Miyuki.
The lines add up to a total of eight, but they don't look disorganized at all.
Because Imatoshi connected them one by one with Kiyoko, the young screenwriters learned how to play the intersection of the story line with Imatoshi.
In addition, in the narrative style, director Toshi Imamoto uses interpolation and peace narrative.
The interlude is not difficult, it is not worth expanding, and in the use of flat narrative, Imatoshi has simply reached the textbook level.
In the film, sometimes miyuki, sometimes Ahana, sometimes Akin, according to the needs of the development of the plot, take turns narrating, so that the audience is in a state of concern for their fate.
However, in the use of the flat narrative method, special attention needs to be paid to the time of accounting for the beginning and fall of time, the time is chaotic, and the overall situation is chaotic.
At this time, Imatoshi's ability is reflected, and he spends two days and one night to sort out all the clues, so that all the characters can complete all the plot requirements on this timeline step by step.
This is not an unhurried showmanship, but Toshi Imamoto recreates a complex version of "Maggie's Gift" with the help of a silky coincidence encounter, without strangeness, but full of humanistic care.
In terms of composition and color, "Tokyo Godfather" is also perfect.
The photographic composition of "Tokyo Godfather" does not pursue beautiful formalism, the picture structure theme is clear, the layout is appropriate, diverse and unified, distinct and concise.
A trio of scavengers, such as A-Hana, Akin, and Miyuki, find a crying baby Kiyoko in a garbage dump on Christmas Eve.
At Ah Hana's strong request, Akin and Miyuki are touched by the maternal love that Aka exudes, and decide to take Kiyoko back to the cardboard room where they live.
It doesn't matter if they suffer or suffer, but they can't let Kiyoko drink tap water with them, so Aka asks Miyuki to go out and buy food for Kiyoko.
On the way back, Miyuki bumps into several people with many books, and sees that there are parenting books scattered on the ground, and Miyuki exchanges the books for food.
As she walked and watched, she passed a playground, and Miyuki did not pay much attention and continued to look down at the book, at which time the composition formed highlighted two words - professional.
The layout in the picture seems to have a lot of things, but there are only four highlights, winter snow, whales, parenting books, and Miyuki, which are chaotic, harmonious and decent, and clearly prioritized.
And the whale is laughing to highlight the childlike fun, Miyuki walks to read the parenting book to respond to care, and the winter snow shows xiangrui like a goose feather, which combines the same theme, love and hope.
Such an excellent image language, more than one place in the film.
If the foreign man fails to assassinate the eldest daughter of the gang at the wedding banquet, and holds Miyuki and Kiyoko hostage, Ah Hana desperately chases them out, while Ah Jin refuses to go on the grounds that the next thing is the police.
Ah Hua therefore scolded Ah Jin as a waste, and continued to chase after him alone, leaving Ah Jin extremely sad, borrowing wine to pour sorrow, and preparing to throw himself as garbage to the recycling station.
This was a painful thing, but Imatoshi's composition alleviated this mood, and Akin stood in the shadows, not far from the brightly lit Tokyo Tower, and there was a warm feeling under the light and darkness.
Compared with the picture, the color of "Tokyo Godfather" is not much more.
With colorful colors, Imatoshi not only succeeded in creating countless beautiful pictures, but also added to the unique viewing and aesthetics of the film.
The film brings the audience the most realistic visual and emotional feelings through color, and plays a narrative role in the development of the story, the creation and resolution of contradictions and conflicts.
As in the last scene at the end of the film, Ah Hua sacrifices herself to save Qingzi, and then the camera is transferred to the newborn sun.
There are two main colors in the picture, black and yellow, and the black high-rise buildings have the meaning of cold, dark, and confused, and it is very easy to trigger a low, melancholy mood.
But the appearance of the morning sun brings yellow, which can dispel the darkness, because the brightness of yellow is higher, which can bring people a feeling of brightness and joy, and also symbolize happiness and warmth.
Although different colors are used in the film, these colors are not randomly pieced together, but reflect the intentions of director Imatoshi.
Whether it is warm or cool, when the audience sees such a tragic combination of scavengers, shemales, abandoned babies, and stabbed fathers, they will have pity in their hearts, but psychologically they are warm and calm.
This is the rational collocation of colors on people's psychological promotion, making people look very comfortable, because the orientation is positive and promising.
Of course, the theme ideas in the film are also outstanding.
The story of "The Godfather of Tokyo" is like a human origin, and it is a new birth, looking for its own dock in the long river of time, until it is anchored and settled permanently.
Although Ah Hana, Ah Jin, and Miyuki are low-level people, they have noble virtues, a loving mentality, and the highest good thoughts.
It is on this basis that they can know and then be still, be still and then be still, be quiet and then be at peace, be able to worry about peace, and be able to worry and then be able to get.
Ah Hana gets love, Ah Jin returns to the family, and Miyuki reconciles with her father, which is the charm of good movies, which always inadvertently makes people learn to live actively.