Film review: Tony Takitani

“You taught me not just how lonely I was, but how important it was for me to meet you, and how I've lost everything like that in my life.”
- Tony (Issei Ogata)

“I feel like clothes - that they fill up what's missing inside me.”
- Eiko (Rie Miyazawa)

Tony Takitani is a film adaptation of Haruki Murakami's short story. Directed by Jun Ichikawa, the film deals with the themes of obsession, isolation, loss, and loneliness. Ichikawa's quirky, minimalist approach has effectively translating Murakami's style to the big screen.

The film is deliberate and sophisticated in its stylistic endeavours. The colour palette is extremely sombre with greys and greens favoured. The psychological void experienced by the characters are backed with Ryuchi Sakamoto’s elegiac piano chords.

Characters sometimes take the words of the ever present narrator to add more life to it. Attention to detail is flawless and the film’s downbeat, lonely sensibility infuses every scene.


Tony Takitani celebrates love, yet love is shown also to be something that can be debilitating, even destructive, especially when one is separated from the object of his or her affection. The metaphor of Eiko's obsession and love for her clothes cause her death and Tony's love for deceased Eiko is so debilitating that the presence of her clothes evokes painful memories that seem to haunt him for the longest time.

So haunting is Tony Takitani, that once you've seen it, the memory of it will stay with you, whether you like it or not.

Posted by Che Yok Céré