Just Another Day in Tokyo

Kono delivers drugs. His pal Takese quits his job to do the same. During his last day at work he meets Nanae who is a drawer. Together they go out and enjoy themselves in the Tokyo-night.
”Just Another Day in Tokyo” is one part of the hoplesness and emptiness in todays Japan that Satok Kemmochi has written and directed. His ambition is to show how the young individuas are shped by the grey and meeningless every-day life. The effect is not alltogether hopeless in spite of the waiting and the boredom that the main characters suffer every day. Small and trembeling steps are taken towards an identity of their own and an adult life that works.
He lets Nanae explain the search when she talks about the childbook that she dreams of writing. This book is supposed to describe what it is like to grow up somewhere where you do not quite fit in, based on her own experience. A circle with one cakepiece missing symbolises herself. She eventually found the missing piece, and as a whole peron she is now happy with her life. Takase and Kono on the other hand still have a long way to go, and their seaking continues without much enthusiasm.
An interesting aspect is is that the characters have the same name as the actors. The actor who plays Takase is in real life named Arata Takase, and the actor that plays Kono is in real life named Tomonori Kono. The fact that the latter comes from Oita both in the film and in real life makes it difficult to know where the line between actor and character goes. This insecurity is strengthened by the fact that the actors are very natural and relaxed in their acting; it is easy to suspect that they act as themselves.
Natural every-day life is the common factor between ”Just Another day in Tokyo” and ”Just Another Day in Oita.” The stories move forward very slowly; if Kono has to wait for somebody, well, then the audience has to wait too. If Takase and Nanae begin a converation very carefully just to immediately fall into silence and later try again, well, we as the audience have to go through that too. Sometimes it seams that the film is played in real time, meaning it takes as long to do something on the screen as it does in reality. Repetition and koncentration are keywords in this film. It can be difficult to get used to the slow pace as a well familiar movie and TV viewer, but once you get into it you are rewarded with a closeness to the character that is more important then the actual story.
Jakob Abrahamsson

Premiärstatus
Europeisk premiär: Orig. titel
Itsumo no yoni: Medverkande
Nanae Ishikawa, Kikuo Imagawa: Producent
Satoki Kemmochi: Manus
Satoki Kemmochi: Foto
Hiroki Miyano: Musik
BEGIN, Rinken Band: Talat språk
Japanese