Michel Gondry’s TOKYO!

8 Aug 2008 Category: Film / Animation, Japan

Michel Gondry’s TOKYO!

A scene from Michel Gondry's latest film "Interior Design" as part of the omnibus movie "TOKYO!”: Hiroko moves with her boyfriend Akira, a novice filmmaker, to Tokyo. Compared to the ambitious Akira, Hiroko is awkward with everything and has no clue how she can express herself creatively. She starts to feel uncomfortable and, one day, a part of her body turns into a tree... © 2008 "TOKYO!"

According to a survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, 5,330,000 foreign tourists visited the city last year — which is 10 percent more than the year before, and it has been increasing since the first survey in 2004! How do they perceive Tokyo? Is it fast for them? Or big? Or wacky…? TOKYO! is an omnibus film consisting of three episodes directed by Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax and our favourite Michel Gondry! PingMag hurried to the press conference in the centre of Shibuya to meet Monsieur Gondry and Gabrielle Bell, the co-writer and author of the original comic of Michel’s “Interior Design” segment, to find out what they actually think about Tokyo.

Written by Chiemi


Movie poster for the omnibus “TOKYO!” that will be opening in Shibuya Cinemarise and Cine Libre Ikebukuro from Saturday, August 16th.

First of all, the story of the “Interior Design” episode is based on Gabrielle’s comic Cecil and Jordan in New York. When you decided to shoot the film in Tokyo instead of New York, what did you have to change?

Michel: If the two cities were very different, I wouldn’t have chosen this story. So I focused on the similarity of these cities to make this film. This story is about someone who is ambitious and someone who doesn’t have ambition, and they move to Tokyo. New York is a city that people come to accomplish something and I think people move to Tokyo to achieve something too.

Gabrielle: Another thing is the size of apartments. The apartments in New York are very small, but the apartments in Tokyo are even smaller and even more crowded. So it fit the story better because it’s about people who come to stay with someone but they feel uncomfortable because there’s not enough room for them.

A happy press conference with two happy people, Michel Gondry and Gabrielle Bell. Photo by Sean Wood

What did you think about Tokyo during the shoot?

Gabrielle: It was my first visit and my impression was that everybody involved with the film was extremely serious and hard working, straight forward and had a genuine sense of humour.

Michel: For me, this city is fast but quiet at the same time compared to New York. I have the impression that people don’t express themselves much but they are polite and always follow the rules. On the other hand, I was very worried about the flexibility of the Japanese crew and the Japanese authorities to accommodate shooting in public spaces, but the creative Japanese producer and the crew changed my impression. The society is not very protective for workers here, so I could work during crazy hours almost like an American film director in the 1940’s.

I heard that actors had some difficulty to get used to the shoot because there was no test before the actual take. How would you weight Japanese actors’ ability to improvise?

Michel: I didn’t ask them to improvise at all, I asked them to be spontaneous. The reason I avoid doing tests is because I’m superstitious and I believe if the test is great it gets worse afterwards. Also, I don’t give actors any direction for the first take in general in case someone comes up with a good idea which is different from mine. If I give them direction first we never try someone else’s idea and I would miss out a very interesting take. As a result, we could collaborate well on taking directions.

Actors and staff are checking a take. By the way, doesn’t one of the main characters, Akira (second from left), resemble Michel a bit…? © 2008 “TOKYO!”

In your episode “Interior Design,” the main character, Hiroko, struggles to find a way to express herself. Do you have any tips for us to be creative like you?


Michel pretends to shave with some interviewer’s recording device! Photo by Sean Wood

Gabrielle: Hmmm… For me, it’s doing something everyday until it gets boring, then you become creative.

Michel: I write all the ideas down and throw out the ones which make sense and save the ones which make less sense. It means that you have to try hard to make it work, but the difficulties make the quality.

Gabrielle: Do you really do that!?

Michel: Yes, in my head. Challenging the difficulties and stupidities always leads you to a good result. But when I suffer from creation, I get very upset, lose my hair and have diarrhoea, I can’t sleep and don’t know who I am…

Is the past you have put a lot of effort into your film sets: Is there anything you worked on particularly this time?

Michel: The apartment in the story was too small to shoot, so we had to make a set. I really wanted to get the looks right. So we visited lot of Japanese apartments and, at the same time, we actually met people who live there. Some of them told us interesting stories and others even cooked for us! I didn’t want to feel like a tourist, so I didn’t take my usual crew and just worked with the Japanese staff. Gabrielle and I became a part of them and had a very good relationship with them.

The protagonists Hiroko and Akira stay at Akemi’s tiny room. Looks exactly like the ones we know! © 2008 “TOKYO!”

Does the relationship between Hiroko and Akira reflect your own relationship…?

Gabrielle: The scene where they have arguments is pretty autobiographical. In fact, she gets upset about small things and he tries to change the subject and she gets upset even more. Then he tries to finish the conversation with some joke…

Michel: In general, girls express the feelings and guys try to solve things logically, and that just doesn’t work. So we put in the film what we had experienced.


Two great artists, Michel Gondry and Gabrielle Bell, who are also a great couple! Photo by Sean Wood

Thank you, Michel and Gabrielle! That was such a heart-warming press conference! In any case, the omnibus movie “TOKYO!” is going to be in theatres such as Shibuya Cinema Rize from this month. Tokyoites, don’t miss out on that one! For people living in the rest of Japan, have a sneak look at the official Japanese site for now!

28 Comments

  1. Hey this sounds like an good film to go and see. Interesting comments re impressions about Tokyo. Love the insights into male and female differences at the end - how true : )

    Posted by: Honor on August 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

  2. thanks for that.

    Posted by: Grzegorz on August 9th, 2008 at 1:12 am

  3. This movie seems really cool. I’s it going to be released worldwide in theaters?
    -d

    http://www.public-property.org

    Posted by: David on August 9th, 2008 at 1:12 am

  4. [...] ein Interview mit einem der drei Regisseure des dreiteiligen Episodenfilms “Tokyo!” (auch Tôkyô!) veröffentlicht. Der Regisseur in Frage ist auch dem deutschen Publikum ohne Asienkenntnisse ein Begriff: Michel [...]

    Posted by: Tokyo! - xDest on August 9th, 2008 at 4:26 am

  5. Does the movie have English subtitles? I would love to see it but my ability to understand Japanese is limited.

    Posted by: Shane on August 9th, 2008 at 9:47 am

  6. I hope this comes State-side… what fun!

    Posted by: earl on August 9th, 2008 at 10:53 am

  7. hey i will sure watch it.
    thanks.

    Posted by: FYQue on August 9th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

  8. see…
    http://www.sheeponjeep.com

    Posted by: goro goro on August 9th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

  9. Nice to learn that Leos Carax is still in the business. His first movies were so beautiful! Are you going to talk about his participation in this movie?

    Posted by: Thierry on August 9th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

  10. Gonna be looking out for this one. Eternal Sunshine is still one of my fav films. :]

    Posted by: blauereiter on August 10th, 2008 at 3:39 am

  11. [...] Interviewed with Michel Gondry and Gabrielle about the omnibus film - Tokyo! in PingMag. [...]

    Posted by: Konichiwa Gondry! at Star Log on August 10th, 2008 at 3:56 am

  12. The best thing about this article, is that the photos were taken by Sean Wood aka Motionid.

    Just kidding. Looked at the movie website, looks pretty good.

    Posted by: yishimoto on August 10th, 2008 at 5:14 am

  13. ohhhh I want to see it so bad

    Posted by: angellesmelle on August 11th, 2008 at 1:10 am

  14. Yawn, why the white ppl come to Japan and ppl get so amaze and excited by it? why?

    Posted by: Yumiko on August 11th, 2008 at 9:03 am

  15. Thanks for the article. But it needs more exclamation points! :)

    Posted by: Ghegh Ghegh on August 11th, 2008 at 10:14 am

  16. i like u &all about of yours~!

    Posted by: lonely on August 11th, 2008 at 9:51 pm

  17. from china:)

    Posted by: lonelytrees.tian.cn on August 11th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

  18. [...] - Michel Gondry, on being creative [via PingMag] [...]

    Posted by: “I write all the ideas down and throw out the ones which make sense and save the ones which make less…” » House of Naked on August 12th, 2008 at 1:03 am

  19. [...] August 2008 by Leslie Kuo I just caught PingMag’s report on a new film that seems right in tune with Sara’s wonderings about what we urban humans have in common [...]

    Posted by: In Tokyo film, girl turns into tree! « urban plant research on August 12th, 2008 at 11:40 pm

  20. Michel Gondry and Ryo Kase….good combination!…I have to see this movie!

    Posted by: Vale from BA. on August 13th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

  21. Oh wow, Michel Gondry. This should be interesting. I hope this gets shown in RP even in some film festival. Hope its not too artsy-artsy though.

    Posted by: lee on August 14th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

  22. [...] first we never try someone else’s idea and I would miss out a very interesting take. — Michel Gondry September 6th, 2008 / 0 Comments / [...]

    Posted by: now » I didn’t ask them to improvise at all, I asked them to be... on September 7th, 2008 at 2:26 am

  23. [...] very upset, lose my hair and have diarrhoea, I can’t sleep and don’t know who I am… — Michel Gondry September 6th, 2008 / 0 Comments / [...]

    Posted by: now » Challenging the difficulties and stupidities always leads you to a good... on September 7th, 2008 at 2:27 am

  24. [...] and Leos Carax. I won’t go into the individual storylines. Instead, I will direct you to PingMag’s excellent article on the film. Leave a [...]

    Posted by: Tokyo Story » Blog Archive » Tokyo! on October 7th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

  25. “Yawn, why the white ppl come to Japan and ppl get so amaze and excited by it? why?” [Yumiko]

    LOL. Why do all the Japanese ppl come to western cities and are so amazed and excited by it all? why? ;)

    Posted by: Cam G on December 8th, 2008 at 9:53 am

  26. [...] Enlaces relacionados: > Michel Gondry’s TOKYO! (pngmag.jp) [...]

    Posted by: Elisava Escuela Superior de Diseño - Postgrado en Diseño y Dirección de Arte » Tokyo (Gondry, Carax, Joon-ho) on December 29th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

  27. [...] awesome, right? Over six months, I had messages about the movie coming from a blog, a friend and a mailing list. By the time the movie opened, there was no way I was going to forget [...]

    Posted by: Two sort-of separate thoughts, linked by TOKYO! » House of Naked on March 19th, 2009 at 11:16 am

  28. This movie is awesome. I saw it twice and I’m going to get the DVD that comes out June 30th

    Posted by: Jason on May 27th, 2009 at 4:49 am

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