Life in a Tokyo shantytown

A cool short film featured on BoingBoing TV:

On a day off in Tokyo I visited a small shantytown in Shibuya I had seen from a train the day before, tucked away in a kids playground. My translator Nick Stone and myself introduced ourselves to a friendly group of people and negotiated permission to pry into their lives and film, in exchange for some food/ cigarettes and wine.

My intentions for the piece were to stay clear of making a patronizing “cry/be angry for the homeless people” thing or a romanticized view of that life. I wanted to distill the experiences of the people who took the time to talk to me and question myself why I ended up going there in search of something to film.

21 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - July 31, 2008 at 9:31 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags: homeless, japan

Rudolf

What a piece of shit that was.
Kitty

This film is horrible. The intro was 2 minutes with no information, then some over-stylized arthouse beginning with no information other than I used to be at a place and now i am here, everyone ends up here. This must have been made by an film student…a failing one.

http://chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

I agree with the part about the first 2 minutes.

Wayne

Kitty said it best. This is complete garbage. I feel sorry for all that have watched it.
http://www.gaijinbash.com Brian

What was the point of the 2 minute intro with the film reels on the screen?
mortonsalt

that was a very “student” film
menrui

someone owes me at least 2min of my life back
rikka

Dear wannabe filmmaker,

Making your film confusing and all “artistic” does not automatically makes it good. Everyone with a right side of their brain can do that.

Thank You
me

whatthefuck.
http://chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

I liked this short. It might leave a large portion of these peoples’ lives to your imagination, but sometimes its important to not demand information be spoon-fed to you. I like that only a vague sense of these peoples’ pasts is given in written form and that the bulk of their current lives’ narrative is supplied by visuals. It might be textbook, but it is a good example of how to tell a story without getting too wordy.

That this is obviously “a student film” doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a decently interesting piece of minimalist cinema (perhaps a bit Sartre-like as well). A bit short, but the film has a lot to say if you only pay a modicum of attention..
http://www.japaneconomynews.com/ Ken

I did get through the first 15 seconds.
http://www.hormel.com VonSkippy

For a good laugh, read all the artsy fartsy comments on the BoingBoing site. They’re all sticking up for that piece-o-crap.

http://chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

It isn’t a piece of crap, you simply lack enough perspective to understand it.

Nslaver

A shame if you consider that they might have a lot of film to choose from.
Pingback: a geek by any other name
OsakaGuy

Thank goodness for the fast forward clicky clicky.

I was surprised the shanty towns have CISCO networking and all those fancy gadgets.

http://chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

You know, you’d be surprised what you find in tarp cities as I like to call them. I’ve met a tri-lingual man who was living in Ueno selling poetry in French. Of course the usual suspects are also there: alcoholism, depression, mental illness, but many of Japan’s homeless aren’t completely desperate. They kind of band together in “business” of sorts, riding trains, collecting used periodicals for cheaper resale. A lot of the homes they construct for themselves are pretty well built as well. Its a very interesting aspect of Japanese society.

Panna

Is this your art project Jordan?

http://chirimotsumoreba.net Jordan

Nope. Just wish people would stop being such philistines.

Terry

I never got past the intro. This film was billed as “I visited a small shantytown in Shibuya I had seen from a train the day before, tucked away in a kids playground. My translator Nick Stone and myself introduced ourselves to a friendly group of people and negotiated permission to pry into their lives and film, in exchange for some food/ cigarettes and wine.”

The fact that over 50% of the time spent on-screen was wasted as an “intro” to the piece, and not on the alleged subject, both shows the amateurishness of the filmographer and the inflated sense of self-worth that plagues said filmographer. For that reason it is a piece of crap. Imagine 60-minutes or any other newsprogram creating a piece about the homeless, and then spending 50% of their time not talking about the subject but showing everyone how well they can play with their copy of Adobe Premier.

Now, if it had been billed as an artistic look at the life of the homeless, I might have another opinion, but it wasn’t. I critique it based on its announced intent. As such, it is crap.

Terry
dac

I kinda wanted to watch it, but I turned it off during the intro.

Life in a Tokyo shantytown

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