"Tokyo Cowboy" Review: Our common enemy is capitalism
I was really hoping this film would play in a few more theaters, but it looks like only two AMC locations are hosting it (Grapevine and Mesquite). Much like Thelma, this is a light comedy-drama that American cinemas haven’t seen much of lately. It’s not something I would go out of your way to see, unless you just really dig this kind of movie, but it’s certainly something to add to your streaming list when you want a metaphorical warm cup of tea.
This film had its regional premier at this year’s Asian Film Festival of Dallas which is another reason to give AFFD a try. The director Marc Marriott was in attendance. He’s an American, but he lived in Japan for a while and worked under director Yoji Yamada who’s famous for the Tora-san film series. When Marriott returned to the States he happened upon a newspaper article about a Japanese company purchasing a cattle ranch in Montana. There was something about the idea of Japanese businessmen learning the ways of cattle country that really stuck with Marriott. Several decades later he finally turned that seed of an idea into Tokyo Cowboy. For an in-depth interview with the director, screenwriter, and producer check out this article from CreativeScreenwriting.
Interestingly, this movie opened in Japan first and then in the US. Typically when I ask American directors if their movies will be shown in the countries related to their films they say that overseas audiences don’t have much appetite for small American films, so I’m glad that Tokyo Cowboy is getting a chance. It fits the theme of cultural exchange, and I think both the US and Japan are given pretty fair representation. This is not a terribly nuanced or complex film, but it steers clear of the most egregious tropes of the fish-out-of-water genre.
The film is told from the point of view of Hideki (Arata Iura), a businessman who works for a company that has made a habit out of buying small family companies and making them “better.” The film opens with what seems like unrelated information about the recent acquisition of a family chocolate company in Japan and the changes Hideki’s company has made to the product while ostensibly maintaining the brand’s legacy. This is one of the subtly clever things about this movie that I’ll come back to later.
Hideki has been engaged for years to Keiko, who also happens to be his boss (Keiko is played by Ayako Fujitani who co-wrote the script along with Dave Boyle). Sensing that Keiko is rightfully getting fed up with him, Hideki suggests that instead of dumping a Montana cattle ranch the company recently acquired, they turn it into a fancy Japanese wagyu operation. Keiko reluctantly agrees, and an older Kobe beef rancher named Wada (Jun Kimura) is recruited to join Hideki on a trip to Montana to get the business going. Wada will also act as his translator since Hideki’s English is limited. Red flags are raised immediately about the viability of Hideki’s idea, but Wada is game and has nothing better to spend his time on. His gentle teasing, and his willingness to try anything, is a major source of comedy and you miss him when he’s side-lined shortly after getting to the US.
It’s sometimes hard to be patient with Hideki and how generally uninformed he is. In an older movie, this could be chalked up to East meets West stereotypes and a lack of motivation for either side to take a genuine interest in the other. However, the script does a good job of establishing Hideki’s character as a clueless try-hard whose obliviousness is never mean-spirited or intentional. He is willing to learn, it just takes a while for the lessons to penetrate and stick. Hideki timidly approaches the ranchers with his binders and his slideshow and is rebuffed almost immediately. They’ve nearly lost the ranch to developers before, and they’ve got work to do. We’re treated to some beautiful footage of Montana and the daily life of the ranch, while Hideki tries to keep the chickens off the compact sedan he rented.
The only people who give him the time of day are the sweet anime fan at the hotel desk and immigrant ranch hand Javier, who is facing personal challenges of his own. Later we meet some other local characters, and just when you think you’ve seen this stock-character before, the film goes in a slightly different direction. I’ll use the anime fan as an example, even though she’s a minor character. She is stoked to tell Hideki that she’s studying Japanese through Duolingo, and that she practices by watching anime at the desk. Normally a character like this would be the target of eye-rolling derision, but Hideki takes her interest in Japan and Japanese seriously even if her enthusiasm is a little cringe inducing. You sense that she’s meant to remind you of him- someone who sincerely wants to learn and grow despite some embarrassing fumbling along the way.
Mild spoilers below the picture.
Even in his home country Hideki seems uncomfortable in his own skin, and it’s no surprise that Montana will be the catalyst to help him come to a conclusion about his life and whether his frantic striving is getting him anywhere. Javier invites him to a quinceanera, and here is where the chocolate comes back. There’s two things happening in this scene. One, Hideki realizes he has been neglecting his personal relationships in favor of all this business malarkey. Two, he finally accepts that he isn’t even good at the business malarkey because someone tries the chocolate he keeps giving out and it’s gross. His company kept the appearance of the brand, but changed everything that made it special and good. For some reason, I truly did not expect the chocolate thing to bear meaningful fruit, so good job writers!
A few plot contrivances later and there is a resolution that works out mostly well for all parties. Hideki and Keiko’s relationship is left in a place that’s not quite a happy ending, but it will hopefully be a productive new beginning. I don’t think Marriott and his co-creators were trying to do anything revolutionary here, and that’s just fine. He has a clear affection for both countries, and the result is a lovely human-centered story about people trying to understand each other across boundaries of language, culture, and the dehumanizing forces of capitalism.