From co-directors Shôgo Furuya & Satoshi Kon, a visually wild anme of the oft-filmed Christmas allegory about three very unwise men (here two men and one teen runaway girl; living homeless on the street), who find an abandoned baby in the trash on Christmas Eve and try to figure out what’s the best thing to do with it ('it’ being a weeks-old girl wailing for a change and a bottle), during the busy holiday season. What makes the film special, and interesting, are the characters (rebelling runaway teen, soiled drunk who lost his family and took to the streets, and a highly flamboyant transvestite - think Auntie Mame - who always wanted to have a baby girl . . . the ‘natural’ way) and the warmer than usual style of animation that uses much more face modeling than usually seen in the genre. Consistently extravagant in all departments, it builds to a superb finale chase/climax that unfortunately takes place late in the night and flattens out the vivid color scheme used in the rest of the film, presumably to emphasize the final sunrise of a new day and the discovery of the real parents and the explanation of how the infant came to be stolen. Quite a different æsthetic than your typical anime, tough, rude and funny, too. (NOTE: Be aware there’s lots of rude language in spite of our Family Friendly label - faggot, homo, etc.)
DOUBLE-BILL: William Wyler’s first all-Talkie was HELL’S HEROES/’29, an exceptional version of THE THREE GODFATHERS, also made twice by John Ford and by Richard Boleslawski along with many more versions. The later Ford version (3 GODFATHERS/’48) is the best known, but lays on the religious allegory as thickly as the period TechniColor. But the expanded ending works a treat.
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