TOKYO-GA

In the organizer's words:

Director: Wim Wenders
FRG/USA, 1983-85, 92 minutes, English, Japanese, DCP

Wim Wenders (born 1945) became internationally known as an important pioneer of the New German Cinema of the 1970s and is considered one of the most important representatives of contemporary world cinema. In addition to multiple award-winning feature films, his work as a screenwriter, director, producer, photographer and author includes numerous innovative documentaries, worldwide photo exhibitions as well as illustrated books, film books and text collections.
In 2022, he was awarded the Japan Art Association's Praemium Imperiale, also known as the "Nobel Prize of the Arts".

For TOKYO-GA, Wenders went in search of traces of Ozu Yasujirô in Tokyo in the 1980s and conducted interviews with his cameraman Atsuta Yûharu and the actor Ryû Chishû, who played leading roles in many of Ozu's films.

An excerpt from Wim Wenders' narrative voice: "Even though these films are Japanese through and through, they are also global. I recognized in them all the families, in all the countries of the world, as well as my own parents, my brother and myself. Never before and never again has film been so close to its essence and purpose: to show a picture of man in our century, a useful, true and valid picture in which he not only sees himself, but can rather learn something about himself."

Film series
Ozu Yasujirô (1903 - 1963)
A tribute to the Japanese directing legend

Ozu Yasujirô is one of Japan's most internationally renowned directors. To mark his 120th birthday, which he would have celebrated this year, the production company Shôchiku and the Japan Foundation have digitally restored several works, six of which we are presenting. The series is complemented by TOKYO-GA by master director Wim Wenders.

The perfectionist Ozu developed an unmistakable film aesthetic, which he pursued with strict consistency. Characteristic are camera shots in which the action is filmed at the eye level of a person sitting on the floor, whereby Ozu always used a 50mm lens. He also deliberately avoided cross-fades, tracking shots or panning shots and restricted himself to fixed shots and simple cuts.

In almost all of his films, Ozu focused on the complex relationships within a family and portrayed the multi-layered emotional interdependencies between the different generations.
Both behind and in front of the camera, he worked with a well-coordinated and distinguished team, and many of his actors and actresses were among the stars of their time.

The series is a cooperation with the Arsenal - Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. in Berlin, the Metropolis Kino, Kinemathek Hamburg e.V. and the Filmhaus Nürnberg in the KunstKulturQuartier.

Price information:

Admission free