STRAND RELEASING Haruki Murakami's inspiration for the film "Tony Takitani" came from a T-shirt that he bought for a dollar at a Maui thrift shop. Above, Eiko (Rie Miyazawa) and Takatani (Issey Ogata) in a scene from the film.

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Loss & Solitude

Viewers will feel some connection
to the main characters
in ‘Tony Takitani’

Tony Takitani had a solitary childhood. Being alone was normal because his mother died young and his father was always away with his jazz band.

"Tony Takitani" Not Rated Opens today at Signature Dole Cannery 3 1/2

Tony was named in honor of an American serviceman who befriended his father, but his name also earned him the suspicion of his classmates, and he had few close friends as a child, a situation aggravated by his mother's death.

He studies art at school, but while his sketches are accurate and detailed, they lack feeling. Tony seems to find emotions illogical and immature.

Then Tony finds his true vocation as a technical illustrator and becomes obsessed by Eiko, a client who is obsessed by high couture. It's her one fault. Confusion begins to develop when it appears to Tony that Eiko has a double.

Eventually, Tony marries her and his life changes. He feels vibrantly alive and, for the first time, he understands and fears loneliness. But her obsession with designer clothes worries him. When he asks her to economize, the consequences are tragic.

She dies in a road accident, and Tony is left with a roomful of near-new designer outfits.

A long sequence of aged Japanese photographs acts as a prelude to the film, telling in a few minutes the story of Tony's father. This section of plot takes up a much greater portion of Haruki Murakami's original story, and director Jun Ichikawa made a wise decision in reducing it.

When Tony's story begins is when the viewer is going to fall for this film or not. From start to finish, the film is an episodic accumulation of small, deeply touching scenes tied together by simple yet evocative piano music and enchanting narration.

"Tony Takitani" is a well-intentioned, cerebral film that uses sparse, critical dialogue, facial and body expressions, and Tony's stream-of-consciousness voice-over to bring the viewer into his aching soul.

THE FILM never beats the viewer over the head to grab his attention, instead delicately gripping our own longings so effortlessly that you can't help but feel some connection with both characters.

"Tony Takitani" is about a sense of loss and solitude, incorporated in a fable-like tone in a film adapted from Murakami's short novel published more than 10 years ago. The film's theme of isolation has a universal quality, passed through generations and something we cannot undo alone.

The two protagonists are treated in a symbolic manner that allows viewers to feel a familiarity.

Director Ichikawa uses a narrator as a distancing tool, with his low tone suiting the atmosphere, expressing the parts of the original story while guarding its original serenity.

There are several shots of blank spaces like an Edward Hopper painting, and a simple stage-like small theater with many scenes slightly altered by the angle of the stage and a subtle change of the interior. Ichikawa uses few actors, with the lead pair of Issey Ogata and Rie Miyazawa playing two roles each. Ichikawa gives his film a monochromatic look, to tone down the color apparently to replicate Murakami's literary world, solid but nonetheless floating.

Tony's courtship of Eiko and subsequent troubles draw us closer to this sad, beautiful soul until his loneliness finally becomes absolute.

Alone again, with Eiko dead, Tony sits in his wife's closet gazing at ghosts of her soul, her couture pieces. Finally, Tony places an ad in the paper searching for a woman who is a perfect size 7.

I cannot imagine a better feature film to first bring the brilliant writing of Haruki Murakami to the big screen.

(By the way, Murakami was inspired to write the story after buying an old $1 T-shirt that read "TONY TAKITANI," found in a Maui thrift shop. The shirt was created for a late-'70s political campaign for the real Takitani for his run for a state Senate seat. Murakami had said in an interview with the Daily Yomiuri, "Every time I put on the T-shirt, I felt like this Tony Takitani guy was begging me to write a story about him.")