TOKYO! is a complete mixed bag of tricks.  Three shorts made by world renowned supposedly visionary directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho).

All three stories are set in Tokyo, Japan.  The setting could very well be any big foreign city.  The common theme is how Tokyo shapes the lives of the characters in each story.

Briefly, from the press notes are the gist of each:

INTERIOR DESIGN (Michel Gondry).
A young couple tries to set themselves up in Tokyo. The young man’s ambition is clear — to become a film director. His girlfriend, far more indecisive, cannot escape the vague feeling that she’s losing control of her life. Directionless, both are beginning to go under in this vast city until the young woman, utterly alone, becomes the object of a bizarre transformation…

MERDE (Leos Carax)
A mysterious creature spreads panic in the streets of Tokyo by means of his provocative and destructive behavior. This man, dubbed “The Creature of the Sewers” by the media, arouses both passion and repulsion...until the moment he is captured…

SHAKING TOKYO (Bong Joon-Ho)
For more than 10 years, he’s been a hikikomori. He lives shut up in his apartment, strictly limiting all contact with the outside world to an absolute minimum. When a pizza delivery girl faints in his home during an earthquake, the unthinkable happens — he falls in love. Shortly after, he learns that the girl has in turn become a hikikomori. Will he dare cross the threshold that separates his apartment from the rest of the world?

Of the three, surprisingly, the first (and not the last) is the best one, primarily for the reason that it is the one in which audiences can most relate to.  Most people have at one time or other relocated, if not to a bigger city.  Worst still, is the fact that someone (like a loved one) is involved as well.  INTERIOR DESIGN moves on smoothly, if fact, quite unlike the director Gondry’s other odd films like ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP.

The most confusing, odd and arguably funniest is MERDE about a madman called Mr. Merde who roams Tokyo streets terrorizing pedestrians.  He is captured.  Tried in a courtroom, and speaking a language which can be translated, he acts stranger as the film goes weirder.  The abrupt, ending with a big poke of fun to the United States is to be seen to be believed.  But to many, MERDE will be merde to most watching.  Director Carax made one of my favourite French romances of all time, LES AMANTS DU PONT-NEUF, but his film have gotten from worst to weirder (POLA X and this one)

The third film covers the theme of agoraphobia with a man falling in love after a girl passes out after an earthquake SHAKING TOKYO, forcing him to make eye contact with another being for the first time in 10 years.  At the start, the titles emphasize the fact that a large portion of the population suffers this ailment.  But director Bong’s (THE HOST) film looks almost impossible to believe.  This topic was covered so much more effectively in the Norwegian film BUDDY.