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Rating: 6.5 stars

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Netflix Japan director movie about movies interview tokyo city filmmaking culture Japanese travelog

All movies seen on 11/12/2017

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Tokyo-Ga (1985)

Directed by Wim Wenders

Biography | Documentary | History

Overview

German director Wim Wenders tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu and finds a very different city.

Rated NR | Length 92 minutes

Actors

Yûharu Atsuta | Werner Herzog | Chishū Ryū | Chris Marker

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Documentary by Wim Wenders about Ozu and his filmmaking. However most of this is a travelog around the city of Tokyo including a bump into Werner Herzog. This could’ve been really great if there was any real focus but the entire film is more stream of consciousness. Like “I took a taxi” (footage in taxi) “lots of bars in Shinjuku” (shoots street in Shinjuku) “kids love American culture” (footage of Harajuku) etc.

It’s all great to see this mid-80s period in Tokyo but then there’s the Ozu stuff too which is also unfocused. A few interviews with some of his crew plopped in the middle of this. Neat to see all this but not a lot to take away. Most interesting are how things were 30 years ago and how they’ve either stayed exactly the same (pachinko parlors) or have become vastly different (the rockabilly kids in Harajuku have been replaced by cosplayers and Lolitas).

This is mostly for fans of filmmaking and/or Japan.

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