TOKYO GODFATHERS
(Kon/Furuya / Japan / 2003 / 92 mins / cert 12)
+ manga treats
(Mon 27th-Thurs 30th / 8pm / £4/3)

Best known for his Hitchcock-meets-Disney anime thriller 'Perfect Blue', Kon Satoishi is seen by many as one of Japan’s finest animators. Drawing obvious comparisons with Hayao Miyazaki, Kon’s films combine sublimely detailed animation with flawless storytelling technique that marks him not just as a great maker of cartoons, but also a great filmmaker. With Tokyo Godfathers he departs from his earlier thrillers, making instead a modern day Christmas fable concerning three homeless people and their quest to save an abandoned baby. What follows is a touching and heart-warming fable that genuinely avoids the usual festive sentimentality such a story would traditionally fall into at the expense of complexity.

A worthy successor to 'It’s a Wonderful Life' as a Christmas film with substance. Keep an eye out for further manga screenings here to fill the limbo between the two big weekend holiday blow-outs.