In this follow up to her breakthrough hit Sad Whistle (Kanashiki Kuchibue, 1949), Misora Hibari plays a similar character - a street urchin with a big voice - but with a stronger comic slant. Alone in the world as the story begins, little Mariko (Hibari) is given a home by a kindly nightclub hostess in a ramshackle rooming house. There Mariko meets an irascible guitarist (Kawada Haruhisa), but instead of being impressed by her talent, he wants nothing to do with her.
Hit by a car and dying, Mariko’s protector asks the guitarist to care for the kid he has come to regard as a nuisance. He reluctantly agrees, but tries several times to shake her, with comic consequences. Each time she finds her way back to the rooming house, like a lost cat returning to its owner.
Finally, the guitarist become attached to her and together they start busking their way to fame and fortune. When another boarder, madcap fortuneteller (Enoken), finds a newspaper notice placed by Hibari’s real father (Hanabishi Achako) - a wealthy businessman - trying to locate her, he sets into motion a train of events that threatens Mariko’s friendship with the guitarist, not to mention her budding singing career.
Chaplinesque in its slapstick and “smile and tear” story line, Tokyo Kid was another box office smash for Hibari, while her rendition of the title song become yet another hit. Though not on the same comic level as Chaplin’s The Kid, the film has its own charms, not the least of which is the amazing voice and presence of a pop music genius in embryo.