Tokyo-Ga Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

A solid, but flawed, documentary

On the face of it, Wenders' diary of his journey to Tokyo fulfils the basic remit of an 'exotic documentary', in that it shows us a different culture in an amusing and entertaining light. Sequences in a pachinko parlour and watching Japanese youth recreate fifties America are what we might expect. But since he starts thefilm by telling us that the whole thing was inspired by his love of the films of Yasujiro Ozu, you might expect something more. And this we don't get. Wenders makes no effort to link contemporary Tokyo to the city portrayed by Ozu; his interview with Chishu Ryu is strikingly unilluminating (and only partly due to the actor's modesty). Only in the final interview with Ozu's DoP, do we get anything like a film about Tokyo and a particular director and his methods.