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Tokyo Godfathers Gets Potential Christmas Eve Screenings in Japan
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers is a quintessential Christmas story. The classic 2003 anime film could make its way back to big screens in Japan just for this year's Christmas if it gets enough support from fans.
Three cinemas in Japan are planning to hold Christmas Eve screenings: Tokyo's Shinjuku Piccadily, Aichi's Midnight Square Cinema, and Osaka's Namba Parks Cinema. The screenings at each venue will only go ahead if over 55 tickets are purchased by December 10.
The film review service Filmarks is organizing the project under its "Premium Ticket" initiative, which aims to put classic films back in theaters. The service is also holding a Twitter giveaway campaign exclusive to Japan residents with a prize of 10 year-end jumbo lottery tickets—another reference to events within the film's story.
The anime film premiered in Japan in November 2003. Columbia Tristar opened the film in the United States in December of that year. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on DVD in North America in 2004. GKIDS screened a 4K restoration of the film in the United States and released it on Blu-ray Disc and BD/DVD combo pack in 2020. The release included a new English dub.
GKIDS describes the film's story:
In modern-day Tokyo, three homeless people's lives are changed forever when they discover a baby girl at a garbage dump on Christmas Eve. As the New Year fast approaches, these three forgotten members of society band together to solve the mystery of the abandoned child and the fate of her parents. Along the way, encounters with seemingly unrelated events and people force them to confront their own haunted pasts, as they learn to face their future, together.
The film also recently inspired a stage play that ran at the New National Theater Tokyo in May 2021.
Source: Comic Natalie
