Tokyo Eyes
Encyclopedia
Tokyo Eyes is a 1998 French-Japanese thriller-romance film, starring Shinji Takeda and Hinano Yoshikawa
, directed by French film/documentary maker Jean-Pierre Limosin. It was selected for the 1998 Cannes Film Festival
in the Un Certain Regard
category.
. However, the director suddenly changed his mind and decided to shoot it in Japan with a Japanese cast.
The director and the chief-operator, both French, did not speak Japanese but they decided to take the challenge anyway and accepted to work with a Japanese cast and crew.
The casting for the two main characters, K and Hinano, took three months but finally Jean-Pierre Limosin chose two famous tarento
(TV personalities), Shinji Takeda (b.1972, Sapporo, Hokkaidō
) and Hinano Yoshikawa (b.1979, Tokyo
, Honshū
).
In 1998, Takeda had previously played in five films including A New Love in Tokyo (Ai no shinsekai) and Shichi-nin no otaku: cult seven. He was an experienced TV series actor already playing in seventeen series broadcasted on Fuji TV, TBS
and TV Asahi
. He also appeared on some variety shows.
Hinano Yoshikawa is a fashion model since the age of 14, she is also a singer and a young cinema actress who made her debut the year before in Moonlight Serenade (瀬戸内ムーンライトセレナーデ). She also debuted in TV series and appeared in variety shows.
and free-lance programmer
(also Techno
LPs
collector in his free time), is a vigilante who non-fatally shoots wrong-doers as he encounters them in his daily life.
Before each shooting, he puts on a pair of thick glasses. The local media quickly names the mysterious attacker "Four-eyes" (Le Bigleux in the original version, lit. "the poor-sighted") based on the police composite.
Hinano (Hinano Yoshikawa, born Ai Takeda, 19) is a seventeen-year-old girl who works part-time (arubaito) as a hairdresser. She lives with her older brother Roy, a police officer (Tetta Sugimoto, 33) assigned to the "Four-Eyes" case. While in the subway, she notices a young man secretly filming other passengers, and, intrigued, begins to follow him. Later, she asks her friend and co-worker Naomi (Kaori Mizushima, 34) to join her investigation into the strange young man.
She finally approaches K, and they quickly become friends. He invites her to his apartment and shares his interests of trance
and video games with her. Hinano is suspicious, but she relents, and finds herself in the middle of a romance with the unconventional young man.
In the meantime, Four Eyes is still at large, and Roy's investigation is not closer to finding the shooter. Hinano witnesses one of K's shootings, and is conflicted about what she should do with this knowledge. Hinano confronts K, and K explains that he modified his pistol to be inaccurate, presumably so that the bullets don't actually hit its target. However, later on K accidentally kills one of his victims - a man who was breaking up with a girl for a different girl.
In a second confrontation, K reveals that he uses the thick glasses to cause his victims to hold still, and so that he himself cannot see his victims clearly. He admits that he would not be able to shoot his victims if he looked them in the eye. In addition, he takes video because of a desire to see what is going on in the world, not just look. Despite having lots of video footage of people, he says it is hard to see. But K explains to Hinano that he is willing to give it all up, and refers to Four-Eyes as someone he can separate from, which puts Hinano at ease.
K is visited by a low-ranking yakuza
member (Beat Takeshi) who comes to pick up K's handgun which was apparently on loan, but it is accidentally fired into K's lower abdomen. K does not go to the hospital, but instead meets Hinano and walks around with her. K asks Hinano to meet him at the top of the tallest building in Tokyo. Hinano waits at the top of an observation deck, but K, succumbing to his wound, sways dangerously by the curb of a busy street. In the last sequence, Hinano is walking down the street. Her hand is grabbed; she looks up and sees K's smiling face.
The ending is ambiguous, since it is not clear whether K died. It should be pointed that the international version, including the Japanese one, features seven minutes of additional footage, and possibly a more explicit ending compared to the original cut.
) featured in both the trailer and the movie poster, and adding Tokyo Eyes to Kitano's official filmography.
Not only, Jean-Pierre Limosin did an homage to Takeshi Kitano in his 1998 film , but he also directed a 68-minute documentary dedicated to him the following year as Takeshi Kitano, l'imprévisible ("Takeshi Kitano the unpredictable").
, also made a cameo in Tokyo Eyes, as an antipathetic bus driver. Osugi earned an acting award at Cannes Film Festival
the year before for his performance in HANA-BI
, as another antipathetic character, a role he often played as yakuza or policeman, e.g. in Sonatine
and Postman Blues.
.
's 1961 romance-comedy Une Femme est une femme
. Hinano is dressed the same way as Anna Karina
, playing Angéla, and wears an umbrella like in the French Nouvelle Vague classic.
One of the scenes in Tokyo Eyes shows Hinano mimicking Ai's moves on the window in reference to a scene in Topaz
. This Ryu Murakami
1991 erotic drama is better known as Tokyo Decadence
.
Hinano Yoshikawa
Hinano Yoshikawa is a Japanese actress, fashion model and singer.- Life and career :Yoshikawa was born on December 21, 1979, in Higashikurume, Tokyo, Japan. She started her fashion model career at the age of 14 and still is a model.She made her acting debut in 1997 in Moonlight Serenade...
, directed by French film/documentary maker Jean-Pierre Limosin. It was selected for the 1998 Cannes Film Festival
1998 Cannes Film Festival
The 51st Cannes Film Festival was held on May 13-24, 1998. The Palme d'Or went to the Greek film Mia aioniotita kai mia mera by Theo Angelopoulos.- Jury :*Martin Scorsese *Alain Corneau *Chiara Mastroianni...
in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
category.
From Paris Eyes to Tokyo Eyes
At first, the Tokyo Eyes original script was written like a traditional French film, with local cast and crew and the movie had to be shot in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. However, the director suddenly changed his mind and decided to shoot it in Japan with a Japanese cast.
The director and the chief-operator, both French, did not speak Japanese but they decided to take the challenge anyway and accepted to work with a Japanese cast and crew.
The casting for the two main characters, K and Hinano, took three months but finally Jean-Pierre Limosin chose two famous tarento
Tarento
is a Japanese rendering of the English word "talent" and is used as a catch-all term for mass media personalities who regularly appear on television. Detractors of the phenomenon have referred to it in an English sense as "famous just for being famous" because many that fall into this career line...
(TV personalities), Shinji Takeda (b.1972, Sapporo, Hokkaidō
Hokkaido
, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...
) and Hinano Yoshikawa (b.1979, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
).
In 1998, Takeda had previously played in five films including A New Love in Tokyo (Ai no shinsekai) and Shichi-nin no otaku: cult seven. He was an experienced TV series actor already playing in seventeen series broadcasted on Fuji TV, TBS
Tokyo Broadcasting System
, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
and TV Asahi
TV Asahi
, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....
. He also appeared on some variety shows.
Hinano Yoshikawa is a fashion model since the age of 14, she is also a singer and a young cinema actress who made her debut the year before in Moonlight Serenade (瀬戸内ムーンライトセレナーデ). She also debuted in TV series and appeared in variety shows.
Plot
In Tokyo Eyes, K (Shinji Takeda, 26), a young Japanese debuggerDebugger
A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program that is used to test and debug other programs . The code to be examined might alternatively be running on an instruction set simulator , a technique that allows great power in its ability to halt when specific conditions are encountered but which...
and free-lance programmer
Programmer
A programmer, computer programmer or coder is someone who writes computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist who writes code for many kinds of software. One who practices or professes a formal approach to...
(also Techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
LPs
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
collector in his free time), is a vigilante who non-fatally shoots wrong-doers as he encounters them in his daily life.
Before each shooting, he puts on a pair of thick glasses. The local media quickly names the mysterious attacker "Four-eyes" (Le Bigleux in the original version, lit. "the poor-sighted") based on the police composite.
Hinano (Hinano Yoshikawa, born Ai Takeda, 19) is a seventeen-year-old girl who works part-time (arubaito) as a hairdresser. She lives with her older brother Roy, a police officer (Tetta Sugimoto, 33) assigned to the "Four-Eyes" case. While in the subway, she notices a young man secretly filming other passengers, and, intrigued, begins to follow him. Later, she asks her friend and co-worker Naomi (Kaori Mizushima, 34) to join her investigation into the strange young man.
She finally approaches K, and they quickly become friends. He invites her to his apartment and shares his interests of trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
and video games with her. Hinano is suspicious, but she relents, and finds herself in the middle of a romance with the unconventional young man.
In the meantime, Four Eyes is still at large, and Roy's investigation is not closer to finding the shooter. Hinano witnesses one of K's shootings, and is conflicted about what she should do with this knowledge. Hinano confronts K, and K explains that he modified his pistol to be inaccurate, presumably so that the bullets don't actually hit its target. However, later on K accidentally kills one of his victims - a man who was breaking up with a girl for a different girl.
In a second confrontation, K reveals that he uses the thick glasses to cause his victims to hold still, and so that he himself cannot see his victims clearly. He admits that he would not be able to shoot his victims if he looked them in the eye. In addition, he takes video because of a desire to see what is going on in the world, not just look. Despite having lots of video footage of people, he says it is hard to see. But K explains to Hinano that he is willing to give it all up, and refers to Four-Eyes as someone he can separate from, which puts Hinano at ease.
K is visited by a low-ranking yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
member (Beat Takeshi) who comes to pick up K's handgun which was apparently on loan, but it is accidentally fired into K's lower abdomen. K does not go to the hospital, but instead meets Hinano and walks around with her. K asks Hinano to meet him at the top of the tallest building in Tokyo. Hinano waits at the top of an observation deck, but K, succumbing to his wound, sways dangerously by the curb of a busy street. In the last sequence, Hinano is walking down the street. Her hand is grabbed; she looks up and sees K's smiling face.
The ending is ambiguous, since it is not clear whether K died. It should be pointed that the international version, including the Japanese one, features seven minutes of additional footage, and possibly a more explicit ending compared to the original cut.
Beat Takeshi
What probably helped the popularity of this French-Japanese independent film among the niche of Japanese cinema enthusiasts, is possibly the cameo of the famous Beat Takeshi (aka Takeshi KitanoTakeshi Kitano
is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
) featured in both the trailer and the movie poster, and adding Tokyo Eyes to Kitano's official filmography.
Not only, Jean-Pierre Limosin did an homage to Takeshi Kitano in his 1998 film , but he also directed a 68-minute documentary dedicated to him the following year as Takeshi Kitano, l'imprévisible ("Takeshi Kitano the unpredictable").
Ren Osugi
Another Japanese veteran actor which is often associated with Kitano, Ren OsugiRen Osugi
, born , is a Japanese actor. For his work in Cure, Hana-bi and other films, Osugi was given the Best Supporting Actor award at the 1999 Yokohama Film Festival...
, also made a cameo in Tokyo Eyes, as an antipathetic bus driver. Osugi earned an acting award at Cannes Film Festival
1997 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Isabelle Adjani *Gong Li *Mira Sorvino *Paul Auster *Tim Burton *Luc Bondy *Patrick Dupond *Mike Leigh *Nanni Moretti *Michael Ondaatje -Feature film competition:...
the year before for his performance in HANA-BI
Hana-bi
, released in the US as "Fireworks", is a 1997 Japanese film written, directed and edited by, and starring Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. The film's score was composed by renowned Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi. This was their fourth collaboration...
, as another antipathetic character, a role he often played as yakuza or policeman, e.g. in Sonatine
Sonatine
is a 1993 Japanese film by Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. It won numerous awards and became one of Kitano's most successful and praised films, garnering him a sizable international fan base.-Plot:Kitano plays Murakawa, a Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life...
and Postman Blues.
Fumiya Tanaka
The DJ who enters K's apartment and plays a techno vinyl, Insistence by Fumiya Tanaka, is actually Tanaka, a worldwide famous Japanese artist, and a celebrity in his homeland. He had created the first Japanese Techno tracks label, Torema Records, in 1993. The other techno track featured in Tokyo Eyes, is I thought 3, but were 4 in fact (Hamburger mix), a classic techno number by Takkyū IshinoTakkyu Ishino
, born December 26, 1967 in Shizuoka, Japan, is a Japanese composer and music producer. He is a member of the technopop group Denki Groove.- Singles :* anna - letmein letmeout （1999）* Stereo Nights （2001）* Takbam （2001）...
.
Reference to other films
A Tokyo Eyes sequence with Hinano wearing an umbrella is a reference to a scene in Jean-Luc GodardJean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
's 1961 romance-comedy Une Femme est une femme
A Woman Is a Woman
A Woman Is a Woman is a 1961 French film directed by Jean-Luc Godard, featuring Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean-Claude Brialy. It is a tribute to American musical comedy and associated with the French New Wave.-Plot:...
. Hinano is dressed the same way as Anna Karina
Anna Karina
Anna Karina is a Danish film actress, director, and screenwriter who has spent most of her working life in France. Karina is known as a muse of the director, Jean-Luc Godard, one of the pioneers of the French New Wave...
, playing Angéla, and wears an umbrella like in the French Nouvelle Vague classic.
One of the scenes in Tokyo Eyes shows Hinano mimicking Ai's moves on the window in reference to a scene in Topaz
Tokyo Decadence
is a 1992 Japanese film. The film was directed by Ryu Murakami with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The film stars Miho Nikaido and is known by two other titles, Topaz, Sex Dreams of Topaz. It has been banned in Australia and South Korea...
. This Ryu Murakami
Ryu Murakami
is a Japanese novelist and filmmaker. He is colloquially referred to as the "Maradona of Japanese literature".-Biography:Born as Ryūnosuke Murakami in Sasebo, Nagasaki on February 19, 1952...
1991 erotic drama is better known as Tokyo Decadence
Tokyo Decadence
is a 1992 Japanese film. The film was directed by Ryu Murakami with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto. The film stars Miho Nikaido and is known by two other titles, Topaz, Sex Dreams of Topaz. It has been banned in Australia and South Korea...
.
Awards
- Best debuting actress award (Hinano Yoshikawa) at the Japanese Professional Movie AwardsJapanese Professional Movie AwardsThe are an annual Japanese film award. The first awards were given to films made in 1991....
1999.