Lights, Camera, Action in Tokyo!

Many film creators around the world love the city Tokyo, with its face as an ancient historical place filled with temples and its face as the center of pop culture with the sky rocketing buildings. Because of this dual character, many movies have been filmed here in Tokyo, Japan.

When you think about it, there are too many films to be named. So I'm going to introduce a few films that were filmed recently and are my favorite.

Wasabi (2001)
A French film filmed by Gerard Krawczyk was starred in one of the famous actor in France, Jean Reno and famous actress in Japan, Ryoko Hirosue. The story centers on the yakuza (Japanese mafia) culture in Japan and the film is mainly taken place in Tokyo. Where Yumi (Ryoko) argues with Hubert (Jean) is taken place in Akihabara, the arcade where they play is located in Shibuya.

Kill Bill Vol.1 (2003)
The fourth film made by the Japan loving film creator Quentin Tarantino was filmed in Tokyo as well. The famous fighting scene in the restaurant between Uma Therman and Chiaki Kuriyama was not shot in Tokyo but the place was based as a restaurant in Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo called 'Gonpachi'.

Lost in Translation (2003)
Most of this film, filmed by Sofia Coppola starred by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson took place in Tokyo. After its distribution in 2003, many travel agencies in Japan made a tour package where you can visit most of the place where the film was shot and to stay at the Park Hyatt Tokyo (shinjuku) where Bill Murray stayed. Other places taken place in this film was karaoke bar in Shibuya, bars of Nakameguro, and Park Tower Shinjuku.

Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
In this film by Justin Lin, part of the exciting car action scene was filmed in Shinjuku and Meguro. Although the main setting was Shibuya in this film, it was never actually filmed in Shibuya. It was mostly filmed in Los Angeles with the visuals of Shibuya added to the film later.

There are many more movies set in Tokyo yet to be introduced, and many that are still unknown to people. Next time when you stop by at any of these places, why don`t you take your time to snap a picture ? or maybe you can find more locations by watching these films over and over again.

Now enjoy Tokyo more!