Tekkonkinkreet

Tekkonkinkreet was the opening film of Animation Nation 2007. I watched it last night at the National Museum and was bowled over by how good it was. The animation was seamless as silk, smooth as butter. The characters were endearing and convincing. The artwork was amazing (check out the link for examples). And the most important thing, it was a damn good story.

There are two main characters in this story: Black and White, both orphans who live in the street. Black is strong and smart; White is naive and imaginative. The film opens to White with mucous running from his nose. He pulls on a roll of toilet paper attached to his waist, and the audience is sold, immediately. And we're not even five minutes into the film.

But the admirable thing about this film that it doesn't build only on the natural sympathy audiences have for young orphans, it also manages to make the audience feel empathy for every character in the film. Seriously, I felt for all of them: Gramps the hobo, Fujimura the detective, Sawada the frigid young policeman, Suzuki the Yakuza, Kimura the father-to-be... All of them seemed real and believable to me.

This film is about the demise of a city. It is a swan song, sung by delinquents, hobos, gangsters and policemen. At the heart is the yin-yang philosophy, that black needs white, and white needs black. This film is replete with religious symbols. The fundamental philosophy is the Taoist yin-yang, yet it includes the Hindu god Ganesh, the symbolism of the wounds in the hands, to the statement by Black that he does not believe in anything, to even a quote of faith being the "evidence of things unseen".

I teared up watching this film. I'm not sure what it was that got to me. Perhaps it was the emptiness of the city. Perhaps it was when White lay on the floor in a pool of blood. Or perhaps it was when White said, "God made us broken. With missing screws....... I've got all the screws that Black needs. Every single one."