[School of Movies 2023]

One of only FOUR movies directed by the all-too-soon-departed anime darling Satoshi Kon (along with Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Paprika), this is by far and away his most heartfelt, funny, camp and soulful tale, and it is most definitely Christmassy in nature, considering it concerns three impoverished homeless people and their desperate attempts to protect and ferry back to her parents a holy infant, so tender and mild.

But as well as being a fair and compassionate story of the destitute, this film has an exceedingly rare trans heroine in the shape of Hana, a hot mess who nonetheless has the most determined and forthright of dispositions. Together with the alcoholic Gin and the runaway girl Miyuki, they experience a series of unlikely coincidences that require them to do the right thing in order to reverse an interconnected web of hilariously bad situations.

No matter how lonely and depressed a viewer might feel at the beginning there is no way someone can reach the end without smiling from their very core. This somewhat obscure 2003 Holiday parable is deserving of its cult status.

This episode was commissioned by Alejandra Vargas & Joe G.

Guest:

Mackenzie Eastram  @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod