Tokio Baby (2010) User Reviews

An accurate, yet light-hearted fictionary

[estraye · 9 November 2011]

Tokio Baby is a surprisingly refreshing depiction of a somewhat large- scale phenomenon in Finland, where increasingly many teenagers are spellbound by Japanese pop-culture phenomena such as rock music, comics, naive pop music, movies and consumer products. Compared to many other Western countries, Finland is scarcely populated and has but a few larger cities, leaving teenagers different from others somewhat isolated from their demographic's peers.

This short-film approaches the theme with a somewhat anthropological point of view and does not condemn nor glorify the protagonist's naive and possibly manic perception of her world, making it a quite neutral depiction of a significant contemporary component of Finnish life.

Would make a good feature

[Andrew-Sherman · 1 August 2010]

Tokio Baby is a cute little short that would make a pretty good feature as a full feature movie it would be allowed to flesh out the characters more fully. The basic story is very interesting... a sort of modern day HARVEY told from a farm girl's POV. As is, the acting is good for this kind of film short. The camera work, sound track and animation in Tokio Baby all work together very well. The version I watched was under thirty minutes and I felt it was a good little short but that it was deserving of a full feature in English. The casting is pretty good with the farm girl at odds with her father and mother over what the farm girl believes to be a boring life because of her parents over protectiveness. And that's where the film could especially benefit from a full feature treatment... it would allow the conflict between the parents and daughter to play out even further which would increase audience interest. The girl playing the title character projects just the right amount of optimistic escapism to make her character and the story work. As I said... it was cast very well. An enjoyable movie... just wish there was more of it to watch.