SHINJUKU
At the end of millenium in Shinjuku. From Kabuki-cho to West Exit, Tomomi
is walking through under a railway bridge. There are too many sign boards
around here.The various atmosphere recalls you Asia. Japan is also in Asia,
though.
Tomomi Nakahara is a feelance graphic designer in Tokyo. But, in these days,
she just keeps doing the same kind of work like creating fliers or campany
pamphlets with a computer like DTP. She can not get very creative works.
I sometimes notice, I am very exhausted with my face to my computer. I feel,
I am getting tired on a bad way that never disappear, even, in the next
day. But, anyway, I am surviving on this way. It's not so bad. Because,
I have works. My friend, Ryu-suke can not get any works, even though he
graduated from an art school in New York and has a good design sense.
It's true..., but, I think, Ryu-suke seems not to be interested in design
works from the beginning. Ryu-suke said, " It's not correct.",
though...
Around a smoking place near the entrance of JR-line in Shinjuku station,
some homeless people are mixed up. A homeless wearing a reggae hat, whom
I always watch seems to be in very bad condition with holding his stomach.
But, no one takes care about him. I feel, Shinjuku station is the place
that we need power, just standing there. I think, if Ryu-suke keeps taking
break like that, he also will become a friend of those people. But, I don't
care about that kind of things.
Today, I will meet Ryu-suke and some friends to discuss about a movie which
is ongoing. At first, we started with talking like," Let's creat a
road movie in a low budget around Tokyo ! ". But, we are stuck soon.
If we don't have a studio like Hollywood, it's not bad, we can shoot a movie
on full location. We might creat an interesting movie, if we have good ideas,
contents and good senses. But, we couldn't find good locations for shooting,
which could be a picture.
Ryu-suke has some experiences to shoot independent films. Ryu-suke said
like, before I went to New York, I tryed to creat a short film around Tokyo.
As the result, I reached a conclusion that the fittest event on Tokyo's
landscape is terrorism and mysticism.
I watched the short film. In a kind of dark place, images of burning fire
like a magical ceremony. Images of people in a train which Ryu-suke shot
very rudely. Those two different types images came out alternately. After
that, images of people and landscape becoming crazy like chaos came out...
Actually, Ryu-suke had created this kind of film, long before Aum Terrorism
happened in Tokyo's subway. And, I felt, the images in the film included
something very real. I didn't like the film so much, though...
Ryu-suke was not in Tokyo, when Aum Terro happened. He said, he was watching
the event on TV in his apartment in New York. When I asked him like, "
It may be that you knew the event could happen, so you escaped to New York,
isn't it ?" But, Ryu-suke said, "It is not correct."
" It's the totally different reason why I went to New York. I was planning
it from long time ago. Actually, when I was creating the short film, Japanese
economy was still in Bubble and Stocks had not dropped yet. It was at the
end of 80's. And, no one knows about the future beyond many years.
In those days, I was doing an express delivery work by motorcycle within
60 minutes around Tokyo city area. I was riding a motorcycle terribly fast
for 10 hours a day, all day long. I could feel it actually, a traffic accident
happens so easily. I was not doing the work everyday. But, mabye, I had
been doing it for almost two years. The work was a totally commision system.
During the two years, big accidents among people in the same company were
a brain death, a broken organ and a cut off ankle. A light accident might
happen every month or every week. I also met a few accidents. It was not
so serious. I just got light blows. I didn't get any serious damages to
my body. But, my motorcycle was broken. So, I fixed it and changed tires,
because tires were wasted to strange shaps professionally. We called it,
" press-beri(waste)." It came from delivering express stuff related
to press. Anyway, after all, I had no time and vigor to maintain my motorcycle
so regularly. And, as I turned the engine too much, bulbs of the engine
was broken. So, my motorcycle was totally broken after two years.
But, I was still able to make more money rather than doing ordinary part
time jobs. There were always a lot of works and we were always busy. Depending
on a situation or luck, we could get more than thity thousands yens. It
is very few jobs like that. But, a veteran who had been doing the work for
many years caused an accident resulting someone's injury or death. And,
my motorcycle was broken. So, I decided to quit the job. And also, when
I was riding a motorcycle all day long in Tokyo, I sometimes came across
a scene of an accident.
So, I was thinking like, if speed or amount go beyond a kind of level, a
rate of traffic accident will be very high, beyond our ordinary thinking.
So, when I was creating the short film, I thought, it was not so far from
reality that mysticism or new religous groups would commit a crime. The
boom of new religion had already started from late 80's. Among journalists
or generations who knew Chales Manson or Japan Red Army's terros, I think,
there were some people who insisted the dangerous possibility of new religion.
But, I was really surprised that such a crime like Aum terro really had
happened.I suppose, even though we look for around the world, we can not
find such a group which was doing such curel and sick things. Even though
through world history, maybe, we can't. They really feel so uncomfortable."
" They feel so uncomfortable. I feel so too. You see, we sometimes
feel from a criminal, his own peculiar ability to act. It's like Al Pacino
in " Dog Day Afternoon." It's like, in a quiet bank, taking a
rifle out suddenly. It's not good. But, visually, it sometimes looks good.
But, in Aum's case, they just put plastic bags on the quiet. It seems very
dampish. I can't quite follow them.
But, if we think the case in the world history, a matter like war is more
cruel. Much more people died. I think, according to cruelty, it is not so
different..."
" Yes. In the United States, a case in their own country like O.J.
Simpson, they did a trial for one murder crime, for more than one year,
although they had the reason why they should avoid a riot. But, in Iraq,
as soon as an airplane passed a district prohibited by the U.S., just a
little bit, they shot a missile. I couldn't understand that a little bit.
And, if I sometimes read Japanese newspapers, still I can find a kind of
article like," America that admits herself as a police in the world...",
but, I suppose, Clinton clearly said like, " The United States is not
a police in the world. It depends on the U.S. interests to use the military...",
in a speech some years ago. It might be changed a policy of a country, if
the Goverment change, isn't it ? Unexpectedly, Japanese media which people
think the first class might be loose."
And also, when Ryu-suke came back from New York, he was talking some strange
things like, Tokyo's landscape has some violence which give me physical
damages. And also, he said, when he was watching Tokyo's buildings, he thought
they were similar to something. And, it occured to him that they were temporary
housing. Is Tokyo's house similar to a temporary house in Kobe ? Fuck !
But, a long time ago, my mother said in my childhood, 70's or 80's, "
when a foreiner visited to Japan, the person said that people in Japan had
a TV, a washing machine and a car. They had everything. But, they lived
in a rabit house..." I couldn't understand what is the meaning at that
time. But, I a little understand that the meaning was so.
For a while, Tomomi was seeing streams of people which were sucked into
a ticket barrier and people walking in the ground. And, she seemed to be
deeply in thinking over something.
But, it was just a shot time. She took her wallet from a hip's pocket on
her jeans. And, she found a IO-card among some bills and reciepts which
she bought necesarry stuff for her work. And, she started to walk with light-rhythem
and passed through an automatic ticket barrier. How many years ago was it
that even one station worker who cut a ticket disapeared from any station
in Tokyo ?