Tokyo Biyori Film Screening

Tokyo Biyori『東京日和』DVD screenings

In conjunction with the TOKYO: Before/After photography exhibition

The 1st screening: Friday, June 29, 6:30 P.M.

The 2nd screening: Thursday, July 5, 6:30 P.M.

At The Japan Foundation, Toronto

2 Bloor Street East, above the Royal Bank

Admission free

Reservations required: 416.966.1600 x229

Based on the book by Yōko and Nobuyoshi Araki

Directed by Naoto Takenaka, 1997

in Japanese with English subtitles, 121 minutes

In the photography exhibition TOKYO Before/After, photographs from the 1930s and 1940s are contrasted with works after 2010. In the contemporary section of the exhibition, two photographers, Daidō Moriyama and Nobuyoshi Araki, are featured as the leading giants of post-war photography in Japan.

Sentmental Journey in 1971 marked Nobuyoshi Araki’s first success in photographic publication, which depicted his own honeymoon trip with his beloved Yōko. In 1990 Yōko passed away, but she kept writing essays up to her death. These essays along with Araki’s photographic diary were published on the anniversary of her death in 1991 as Tokyo Biyori (Weather).

In the book Yōko and Araki walk around Tokyo in the fine weather and their affection and thoughts overlap the urban street scene images. Director/actor Naoto Takenaka read the entire book while standing in a bookstore, and it caused him to weep deeply. On the spot Takenaka determined to make this book into a film.

The cityscape of Tokyo is one of the extra characters in the film. Even the apartment of the Arakis, and its view from its terrace, works as a profound background for this most romantic, unique love relationship.