Hacker Cinema
Tokyo-Ga
1985 · Film · documentary · 92 min
Directed by Wim Wenders
German director Wim Wenders tries to explore the Tokyo that was depicted in the films of Yasujiro Ozu and finds a very different city.
3 positive2 neutralfrom 5 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
5 comments on Hacker News
The (quite good) Wim Wenders film 'Tokyo-Ga' covers the manufacturing of these in some detail.
Offtopic, an early-ish film that impressed me is ‘The Rules of the Game’ (‘La Règle du Jeu’) by Jean Renoir, from 1939. I somehow stumbled across it long ago, and recently had to wade through Wikipedia looking for its name, because I realized how alive it was for its time—it's basically ‘French new wave’ before even the WW2, and does quite much remind of Fellini. Maybe I'm watching too few pre-war films, but e.g. ‘Citizen Kane’ looks rather stilted compared to ‘The Rules of the Game’.
Apparently the picture was originally poorly received and quickly recut to a shorter time, but reconstructed in the 50s back to 110 minutes—so it's best to make sure to see this version.
One other, even earlier film that has the same lifelike quality for me is ‘Man with a Movie Camera’ by Dziga Vertov, which is not even a fiction film per se but sort of a documentary. Originally a silent film, but now best enjoyed with the soundtrack by Cinematic Orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGYZ5847FiI
P.S. Wim Wenders said in his quasi-documentary ‘Tokyo-Ga’ about director Yasujiro Ozu, that previously films were about life as it is, as opposed to now that both life and films feel more and more like dreams. That's the impression that I get most from European films from around the 50s and the 60s: French new wave, Fellini, Bergman—even though Fellini constantly swerved into the territory of fantasies. ‘The Rules of the Game’ is also in this company for me.
Ha, I came here to say the same thing. At the least, I recognized:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampopo
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo-Ga
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_Point_(1990_film)
All good films, though maybe acquired tastes unless you are into Japanese film. The second is a documentary by Wim Wenders exploring the work of Yasujiro Ozu, mixed with Wenders' visual impressions of 80s Japan.
I'm reminded of this scene from the Wim Wenders documentary Tokyo-Ga on the same subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y2Ej3AZ4c0
That video is super informative, thanks for posting it. I now realize I hadn't fully appreciated Kurosawa and I need to go back and watch his movies again.
Just FYI, Kurasawa's favorite filmmaker was Ozu Yasujiro, whose visual style is vastly simpler (using almost no pans or zooms, etc). Wim Wenders 1985 documentary Tokyo-Ga is an excellent introduction (first six minutes is here):
http://youtu.be/dW-7ZVzDMdU