Japanistic/Blog

Just learned of the upcoming film - Tokyo. It looks really interesting on a number of levels. First, because it has three short stories directed by fantastic artists (see below); second, because the entire question it raises “whether we shape cities, or if cities shape us” is the same question first raised by the 1980’s graphic novel “Mister X”.

Here is the press release. A movie trailer Tokyo follows.

In TOKYO!, three visionary directors (Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho) come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city as it’s shaped by the disparate people who live, work (and run amok) inside an enormous, constantly evolving, densely populated Japanese megalopolis — the enchanting and inimitable Tokyo.

INTERIOR DESIGN (Michel Gondry).
A young couple tries to set themselves up in Tokyo. The young man’s ambition is clear — to become a film director. His girlfriend, far more indecisive, cannot escape the vague feeling that she’s losing control of her life. Directionless, both are beginning to go under in this vast city until the young woman, utterly alone, becomes the object of a bizarre transformation…

MERDE (Leos Carax)
A mysterious creature spreads panic in the streets of Tokyo by means of his provocative and destructive behavior. This man, dubbed   “The Creature of the Sewers” by the media, arouses both passion and repulsion…until the moment he is captured…

SHAKING TOKYO (Bong Joon-Ho)
For more than 10 years, he’s been a hikikomori. He lives shut up in his apartment, strictly limiting all contact with the outside world to an absolute minimum. When a pizza delivery girl faints in his home during an earthquake, the unthinkable happens — he falls in love. Shortly after, he learns that the girl has in turn become a hikikomori. Will he dare cross the threshold that separates his apartment from the rest of the world?

Rhapsody, psychogeography, urban valentine, freak show, mindwalk and many other things, TOKYO! is a fantasy in three movements that will make you see one of the world’s greatest cities — if not any city — with a new point of view.

In the tradition of such films as NEW YORK STORIES, NIGHT ON EARTH, PARIS JE T’AIME and its forthcoming sequel NEW YORK I LOVE YOU, TOKYO! addresses the timeless question of whether we shape cities, or if cities shape us — while in the process, revealing the rich humanity at the heart of modern urban life.