Tenten (2007)

Director:

Satoshi Miki

Writers:

Yoshinaga Fujita (novel)
Satoshi Miki (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 November 2007 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Takemura has no friends and no family. He's a student but he doesn't have any particular ambitions. In other words...

Plot Keywords:

Debt | Food | Road Movie

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Jô Odagiri	...	Fumiya Takemura
Tomokazu Miura	...	Aiichiro Fukuhara
Kyôko Koizumi	...	Makiko
Yuriko Yoshitaka	...	Fufumi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kumiko Aso	...	Mikaduki Shizuka
Eri Fuse	...	Sendai
Kami Hiraiwa	...	Naomi
Reona Hirota	...	Kaburagi
Yoshizumi Ishihara	...	Young Man of Jelly Shop
Mitsuko Ishii	...	Tatako
Ryo Iwamatsu	...	Kunimatsu
Ittoku Kishibe
Yutaka Matsushige	...	Tomobe
Sanae Miyata	...	Fukuhara'ss wife
Takashi Sasano	...	Middle-aged Matmaker
Takashi Tsumura	...	Owner of Watch Shop
Machiko Washio	...	Midde-aged Woman of Jelly Shop

Also Known As:

Adrift in Tokyo (International: English title) (festival title)

Runtime:

Japan:101 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Company:

Aoi Promotion

I wanted to walk with them for a while longer

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Tenten" (roughly translates to "rapidly changing") is a road movie about a law student with over $8000 in debt being dragged into a long walk around Tokyo with a loan shark for a chance to clear his debt. Destination: Police station in Kasumigaseki. The film provides comedy and drama, as well as various scenes of Tokyo, which has the characteristic of rapidly changing scenery (therefore the title).

Official website for this film is named "tokyosanpo.jp" ("stroll around Tokyo"), and that's exactly what they do for majority of this movie. On the way, they encounter many strange people and events (most occur in real life Tokyo, though severely exaggerated for comedy).

This is my 7th film starring Odagiri Joe, and he's just such a versatile and talented actor who you can always count on. He doesn't have strikingly good looks, but his acting is just so good that I can really connect with his character almost every single time. Miura Tomokazu, who plays the loan shark also acted very well in his usual scary/powerful role.

It was a really funny comedy film, but what I really loved was how well the characters developed. I can literally feel those two main characters bonding. Although Odagiri's character really hated this idea of going out on a walk with his enemy at first, he slowly became interested in this loan shark, and didn't want this walk to ever end. This was such a well-made film that it made me feel the same way. I especially loved that roller-coaster scene near the end, where Odagiri's character began to see the loan shark as a father figure and others in the make-believe family as the family he never had. It was just so touching, and I was so connected with the main character at this point that tears started to well up in my eyes too. I just can't stress enough how good an actor Odagiri is, and this was a perfect film for him. No one can act the average joe roles better than Odagiri Joe.

Unlikely (and disturbingly simple) plot for movie, family bonding, journey, discovering self-identity, countless cameo... it has almost everything I love seeing in movies. Even if you're not into all these things, I can guarantee watching this film is a time well spent.