inquiry - depictions of Tokyo

[Peter Grilli]

There are many, many Japanese films -- set in Tokyo -- that capture the
visual qualities of the city beautifully,
and many other KineJapan members will no doubt have other suggestions.

A few that come immediately to my mind:

SHINODA Masahiro's most recent film Spy Sorge does a masterful job of
recreating Tokyo in the 1930s (done largely through computer-graphics and
computer generated imagery).  There's also a good deal of 1930s Shanghai in
that film (so you'll get 2 of your cities in  a single film!)
(Incidentally, Shinoda's film Sharaku really captures late 18th-century Edo
very well, although that may be too early for your course.)

KUROSAWA's Stray Dog really gets the visuals and atmosphere of Tokyo in the
immediate postwar period -- with many scenes in the downtown shitamachi
areas and some in the middle-class residential yama-no-te parts of town.
The extended montage of detective Mifune searching for his stolen pistol in
the blackmarket underworld of postwar Tokyo captures that period better than
any film I know -- plus it's a great detective story!

Although OZU is better at intimate interpersonal situations rather than
landscapes, his Record of a Tenement Gentleman (Nagaya Shinshiroku) does
catch shitamachi Tokyo around 1947 quite nicely, and Tokyo Story (Tokyo
Monogatari) captures some wonderful visuals of Tokyo about 5 years later in
the scenes when the elderly couple visiting from the country tour the city.

MIZOGUCHI's Street of Shame (Akasen Chitai), though it is set rather
claustrophobically indoors in a mid-1950s brothel has some excellent street
scenes of the "new" postwar Yoshiwara district of Tokyo.

For Meiji Tokyo,  TOYODA Shiro's film THe Wild Geese (aka THe Mistress)
captures streets of the Nezu, Shinobazu area around Tokyo Imperial
University quite well, and GOSHO Heinosuke's film version of Takekurabe
(Growing Up) does the same for Asakusa in the Meiji period.
(In fact, many of Gosho's films do very well at capturing the visual
atmosphere of Tokyo)

IMAMURA Shohei's Eejanaika presents a great panorama of mid-Meiji Tokyo,
with particular attention to the Ryogoku area.

Any single one of YAMADA Yoji's films in the Otoko wa Tsurai yo or Tora-san
series captures a great slice-of-life for downtown Shibamata district.

ITAMI Juzo's Tampopo careens all over Tokyo -- as do his Marusa no Onna
(Taxing Woman) films -- and give a great picture of the city in the
1980s/90s.

Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation does a great job of showing contemporary
Tokyo (esp. Shinjuku) -- but so do many, many other Japanese films of the
1990s.

And don't overlook the Godzilla films and other monster films of the 1950s
and 1960s.  Although Tokyo is usually recreated in miniature models that the
monsters can crush in their claws -- you still get a pretty good view of the
city.

I could go on and on and on.  This is only a start....... Tokyo has been
well photographed in MANY films!!

Peter Grilli


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Peter M. Grilli
President, Japan Society of Boston
One Milk Street,  Boston, MA 02109
Tel:  617-451-0726
Fax:  617-451-1191
E-mail:  grilli at us-japan.org 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu]On Behalf Of Sari Kawana
Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 6:54 PM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: inquiry - depictions of Tokyo


Dear KineJapan subscribers:

Hello, my name is Sari Kawana and I'm a relative newcomer
to the list (I joined a few months ago).  I was wondering
if you could recommend some films with interesting
depictions of Tokyo.  I'm teaching a course on modern
Japanese urban literature, and wanted to show my students
some visual representations of Tokyo from Meiji to the
present.  

What I have in mind is something like the scene in _Sada_
in which Sada and her boyfriend talk on the bank of
Arakawa River with a stylized depiction of pre earthquake
Tokyo in the background (the landscape is of course not
accurate, considering the two are supposed to be in the
Arakawa area, but it provides us a wonderful view of the
city). 

The class will later also deal with Osaka and Shanghai, so
I'd be greatful for suggestions for depictions of these
cities as well.  

Thank you in advance,

Sari Kawana

__________________________________
TSUKAME EIKOU! KAGAYAKE EGAO!
Yahoo! JAPAN JPC OFFICIAL INTERNET PORTAL SITE
http://pr.mail.yahoo.co.jp/para/

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 4332 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20040925/780aeb65/attachment.bin