Tony Takitani: Murakami's Story of Loneliness and the Film Adaptation

Tony Takitani is one of Murakami's quietest and saddest short stories, and it also became one of the most beautiful films made from his work. We recently revisited both, and wanted to share our thoughts on this tale of loneliness.

The story of Tony Takitani

The story, from the early 1990s, follows a man who has been alone since birth. His mother died shortly after he was born, and his father, a wandering jazz musician, was almost never around. The father gave him the name Tony, a Western first name attached to a Japanese surname, Takitani. In the era of the story, that combination made a child stand out, and Tony grows up feeling like an outsider. As one of our notes says, the name may have been not just a name but loneliness itself.

Tony becomes a quiet, skilled illustrator. Then he meets a woman and, for the first time, feels happiness. He marries her. But one thing troubles him a little: she is unable to stop buying clothes. They fill an emptiness in her that neither of them quite understands. Tony asks her to buy less, and soon after, tragedy strikes. Left alone again, he can hardly bear the silence, and he hires a young woman to wear his late wife's clothes and fill the gaps in his life. Without giving away more, the story ends in the cold, unshowy way that so many Murakami stories do.

The 2004 film

The film was directed by Jun Ichikawa and released in 2004. Issey Ogata plays both Tony and his father, and Rie Miyazawa plays both the wife and the woman Tony hires. The doubling is clever: it makes us feel the characters are echoes of one another, repeating the same loneliness across time.

The camera moves slowly and sideways, lingering in rooms. A narrator tells much of the story, much as the prose does on the page. The film does not rush, and that restraint is its power. As our notes put it, the whole look of the film is loneliness itself.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's music

The score is by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and it is sparse, with a few piano notes that seem to hang in the air. It mirrors the static camerawork and the spare dialogue. Murakami's fiction is full of music, and here a composer has found the film's emotional centre with very little. If you love the mood, put the score on while you read the short story again.

Our opinion

What we take from Tony Takitani is that loneliness is not always dramatic. Sometimes it is a closet full of clothes, an empty studio, or a name that never fit. Murakami's stories about solitude are often tied to music and objects, as in our post on the story of Billie Holiday, and this one is no exception. It is also proof that his shorter work can hit as hard as any novel.

FAQ

Who directed the Tony Takitani film?

Jun Ichikawa, in 2004.

Who plays Tony in the film?

Issey Ogata, who also plays Tony's father.

Who composed the music?

Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Have you seen the film or read the story? Which one affected you more?