Mjeteconer Just perfect...

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

sitenoise Mami Nakamura's performance makes this one a big winner. She's engaging, endearing, amusing, and sympathetic from start to finish. That's what it takes for a small film like this to succeed, a film which says: "Here's an offbeat character, do you like her? Does she draw you into her life, entertain you, and invite you to wonder what will happen to her?" It takes a clever script and a good performance. Tokyo Trash Baby delivers on both accounts.Miyuki (Nakamura) is a girl in love with her upstairs neighbor, a musician. Instead of trying to meet him she is content with stealing his garbage and foraging through it to find things that will give her insight into his personality. She collects many things, like empty cereal boxes, cigarette butts, love letters, discarded musical scores, and creates a shrine to her love in her apartment. She discards a used condom. The story falls a little flat after she does eventually meet him face to face, but Miyuki is still fun to spend time with. As are the few peripheral characters in the film.Tomorowo Taguchi plays the manager at the café where Miyuki works and is typical Taguchi odd but doesn't have much impact on the story. Two other characters do, though: Kô Shibasaki plays co-worker, Kyoko, whose screen time is devoted almost exclusively to telling Miyuki stories of her sexual conquests, dreams, and dilemmas ... and bumming smokes. Masahiro Toda plays a customer trying desperately to get Miyuki to go out with him but he's too boring to make an impact on her. His attempts at realizing love are face to face but his loneliness prevents him from catching a clue. Both characters serve as juxtaposition to Miyuki and highlight my favorite theme of the film: loneliness. Kyoko has a very active social life but seems unfulfilled and lost. Miyuki (contrary to most observations on the film) doesn't seem lonely. She seems content and happy with her life. That's what makes her interesting. Director Hiroki gives her the respect she deserves.Tokyo Trash Baby is part of the Love Cinema series of six straight-to-video releases which also includes Takashi Miike's Visitor Q. It's a low-budget affair shot on Digital Video. It's uses all natural lighting and sometimes the glare from an open window distracts but never gets in the way. It's testament to the strength of the story and performance that technical limitations do not derail the project at all.★★★★★

acerk21 When describing Tokyo Trash Baby, the words "weird", "gross" and "disturbing" come to mind. There are definitely a few problems with this film....For one, the English subtitles are horrendous containing many grammatical errors and misspelled words which get a little annoying after a while. Second, there are a few long and meaningless shots that go on forever and serve no purpose other than to suggest that the movie is more artistic than it really is. And lastly, the whole production of the film had that cheap quality to it mainly because of the low budget camera they were using. With all that said, I still really enjoyed this movie. I was engrossed the whole time watching it and for some odd reason, really started to care about the main character towards the end of the film. Also noteworthy is the strange music and the eerie mood that was established throughout. I know that the majority will absolutely loathe Tokyo Trash Baby, but if you're a little peculiar yourself and have the patience, then this movie is certainly recommended.

heikidesu A slow paced but enchanting movie... like Cafe Lumiere, it has some great shots of modern Tokyo and an even more realistic feel. However, I, for one, would probably not have watched an identical movie set in New York, for me much of the fun is in the Tokyo setting.I have added it to the list of 10 or so Japanese/Japan-related movies that I recommend to friends.* A simple story, based on a young Tokyo woman who is obsessed with the man who lives above her in their apartment house, and sorts almost religiously through his trash. Eventually she schemes to run into him in real life and, maybe, the collision between dreams and reality sets her off on a different course. (Not much of a spoiler, but better safe than sorry).The subtitles I saw seemed a bit weak in spots and it was a shame that they didn't translate Yume no Shima**... the place where the main action of the movie ends... kind of stops from completing the loop of the story.The Netflix disc that I saw also had an interesting biography of the director's previous work. The other review on this site says that the movie seems a bit amateurish, but this information makes it clear he's earned his chops.* let's see: Stray DogCafe Lumiere Mr. Baseball Walk Don't Run Bounce KO Gals Tony Takitani Tokyo Monogatari TenKouSei (Changing Schools... I haven't seen a translated version) Always San Choume no Yuuhi (Always 3rd Precinct Evening Sun) Stupeur et Tremblements (Fear and Trembling)** Dream Island (might also be construed as a spoiler)

lost-in-limbo A waitress Miyuki becomes obsessed with a scruffy rock 'n' roll musician Yoshinori that lives in her apartment building. So she scrummage's through his garbage to learn more about him, as she's to shy to introduce her self or to start a conversation. While going through his garbage, she decides keep certain pieces to create a shrine for him in her apartment.Well, this is definitely one quirky and direct film. This is no love story, but actually a bizarre and sometimes bleak tale of adoration. Miyuki would head back home after work and get his garbage and go through it, every night. So it becomes some sort of chore, where she would collect items such as cigarettes butts, Marlboros boxes, cereal boxes, bottles and a worn out shirt. Though, she also would smoke the same cigarettes he did, used the same shampoo and cut pictures of him and put them next to pictures of her or vice versa. As well as Confronting his ex-girlfriend and then trying to be like the woman of his dreams.The story does have some charm to it, with some intriguing and spirited characters thrown into the mix. Especially at the café that Miyuki works at. Though, the actual story started to wore thin or drag the further the along it went. At times some of the sub-plots kind of derailed the main story and they weren't terribly engaging.It started to get tediously repetitious after a while. With to many scenes that drag into nothingness and dwell on empty scenes, where pretty camera work was used. The editing felt as if it could have been far sharper. The ending or last 20mins just felt over-long and out of place. My interest started to fade when she gets the courage to face him and when she learns that he knew about her habit of going through his garbage. The film just came across as feeling longer than it was.The film felt like it was basically shot on a hand held camera, with some scenes coming across like a documentary style and having a TV movie feel. The soundtrack was pretty reasonable and the director captures the sombre undertone of urban life in Tokyo.The leads are fair. Mami Nakamura as the obsessed Miyuki gives such a moody performance and in doing so it's perfect in capturing the fixation of her character. Ignoring the outside world, such as the guy in the café that tries to get her interest. Kazuma Suzuki as the admirably cool Yoshinori, is not bad as the unknown figure we learn more about through Miyuki.Though, it's not terrible, but overall the premise of the film ended up sounding more interesting than it actually was.