Japan Cuts XIX Review: In TOKYO TAXI, A Ride To Remember
Tokyo Taxi enjoyed its East Coast Premiere for the 19th edition of Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film.
Director Yoji Yamada’s career is another space I’ve yet to really touch on. Contributing writer Mike Garcia has done more viewing on this end, I believe, having watched all the Tora-san films last I check, and I wouldn’t mind catching up with that franchise at some point. I will say, though, that while it’s not often I get to watch a Yoji Yamada movie, it’s definitely not as often that with a film like Tokyo Taxi, I get to revisit a few favorite actors whose works I’ve seen – namely Takuya Kimura who I couldn’t shut up about enough re: Blade Of The Immortal, and actress Chieko Misaka who last hit my radar with an appearance in yesteryear classic, I, The Executioner.
It’s a wonderful thing too, this movie – a remake of Christian Carion’s Driving Madeleine (2022), no less. My quadragenarian years have me thinking more and more about life as we age, about my parents and about what will happen. I worry a lot. Especially for my parents’ safety and well being when I’m not around. They have more time behind them than in front, and that comes as a reminder looking back on all my years of being as hard-headed as I was. I’m ranting, I know, but these things need to be said, because it’s precisely the kind of film Yamada made here that should put to rest anyone’s assumptions or preconceptions about lit ving and co-existing with others, the impact we have on people, and how we all want to be remembered.
For someone like Sumire (Misaka), an 85 year old senior citizen waiting for her taxi to come pick her up, there are no allusions as to how she’ll be remembered by some. She has a temperament about her that’ll irk you, particularly if you’re a man, which is to say that to instead have someone like Koji (Kimura) at her service in place of another driver who was initially supposed to pick her up, it’s an immediate twist that sets up a poignant and transformative story that will assuredly see both characters embracing something unexpected and essential. The things we learn and feel and grow from are really about the people we meet most days, and the experiences we take from those moments in time.
That’s certainly one aspect of Tokyo Taxi that unfolds long after we are introduced to Koji, a taxi driver-owner and family man who at once finds himself cornered by bills, including an expensive tuition for his daughter’s music education at a private school. He certainly needs the cash, and one morning decides to take up the latest job sent to him by someone who was originally booked and had to decline at the last minute. As Sumire takes her seat in Koji’s cab and the two drive off, the remainder of the story follows a storied look back at a life of love, tragedy, wonder and redemption. Bolstered by Sumire’s interest in revisiting all the places in Tokyo thats he once knew, the story ensues with several flashbacks of a younger Sumire (Yu Aoi) living her best post-World War II life as possible, working alongside her mother and raising a son, in addition to surviving the trials and tribulations of domestic abuse, and going the absolute distance to protect what’s left of her family.
With Sumire regaling about the olden days, there’s a visible change happening in Koji, bearing a few personal penchants of his own at first before we see the effect both driver and passenger have on each other, and the chemistry that blooms as a result. There’s one scene where Koji calls his wife to have a quick talk while on the road between stops, and she starts asking questions about his female passenger for the day. Theirs is a loving marriage for sure, a fact underscored notably in how the conversation ends which had me chuckling.
Tokyo Taxi is an earnest, feel-good, and hearty road adventure, carried aptly by Kimura, and by a long-venerated star in Misaka who delivers a heart-warming performance in a film that bodes nothing short of bittersweet with a caring application. If you walked away from Japan Cuts or any film festival having seen nothing else, I hope you did so watching this film.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
