Tenten (Adrift in Tokyo)

Title: Tenten
Translated Title: Adrift in Tokyo
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Starring: Jô Odagiri, Tomokazu Miura, Kyôko Koizumi, Yuriko Yoshitaka
Director: Satoshi Miki
Language: Japanese

“In my 8th college year, buying 3-colour toothpaste I thought could spare me from my rock bottom situation.”

Often when nothing happens in a film, its pretty dull to watch. You sit there anticipating anything that might be of interest and it never really comes. What I've observed though – particularly where 'slice of life' anime is concerned – is that quite often, even when nothing at all happens the result is interesting to watch; the characters going about their ordinary day to day lives is all that's needed as you form an attachment to them, like a close friend or family member you wish to keep in touch with and know what's happening in their lives. The challenge here, in this more than aptly titled film, is forming this attachment in a short space of time. Miki doesn't have the luxury of an entire series to allow his characters to slowly develop and time spent fleshing them out is time for my attention span to wane.

When the isolated and depressed student, Fumiya (Odagiri), is introduced, it isn't long before we see his reality crashing down on him with the second half of this double-act, Aiichiro (Miura), barging into his small flat; the debt collector demanding his ¥800,000 (~£6,000). When the ultimatum arrives and its clear he won't be able to pay, he offers him a deal; walk around Tokyo with him until he's satisfied and receive ¥1,000,000. As they drift in and out of the dirty streets and gorgeous grassland, busy shopping districts and decaying slums; from the Temple where Aaichiro first kissed his wife to Fumiya's birthplace, they come to learn about one another and just how they both came to their situation.

Contrary to what I said earlier, saying that nothing happens is a bit of a misnomer because in truth a lot happens, and it's not done subtly either. It would perhaps be more accurate to call the entire film somewhat aimless, but even that doesn't quite fit. As assuredly as they do drift aimlessly between the dirty streets, seemingly random events occur with that sole reason of allowing our characters to share in them and offer companionship to one another, and it is this sense of genuine affection that forms between the two with nobody else in the world who really knows who they really are, nor even thinks to ask. Between the crazed guitarists and the show-stealing excitable teenager Fufumi (Yoshitaka); the angry watch makers and deranged painters, it's only on reflection that so much seems to have happened that you wonder how he fit it all in.

Many of the exaggerated situations that develop feel almost painfully obvious, and yet somehow they work; the temporary adoption of the isolated student and his resulting inability to function, contemplative of his situation, revisiting other aspects of his forlorn childhood as well as querying the debt collectors own past. The unlikely two quickly form the ability to be open with one another, secure in the knowledge that at the end of their journey there would be nobody either one could tell, and in doing so form an unexpected bond simply by virtue of empathy for one another. The film might be simplistic and suffer until the three-way bonds form (between the audience and the two characters) but I daren't say it isn't effective.