The fictional film will be set in a public restroom that is part of the real-life urban renewal project known as the “The Tokyo Toilet project", which involves the creation of 17 public bathrooms in key locations in the Japanese capital with designs by world renowned Japanese architects, such as Tadao Ando and Sou Fujimoto.
Wenders said he was inspired by the futuristic look and unique cultural spirit of the project and decided to set his forthcoming untitled film inside one of them.
— The Hollywood Reporter
The angsty Alice in the Cities and Tokyo-Ga director said “there is something very Japanese about the idea, about the whole setting […] I almost think it’s a Utopian idea” in reference to the Nippon Foundation’s two-year-old Tokyo Toilet project, which has to date produced 17 different designs from Toyo Ito, Shigeru Ban, and Tadao Ando, among others. Production will begin in October. The film is said to center around four narratives and stars Koji Yakusho in the lead role as a Tokyo sanitation worker.
“First of all, I love architecture. In another life, I certainly want to be an architect. And I slowly realized how close the work of an architect to the work of a director really is in many ways,” he said at a press conference, referencing Ando's design in particular. “I truly feel like he is a contemporary of mine. Though we don”t meet so often, I feel a connection and I’m happy that I know him and am able to work with him. I was also so happy to see his toilet the other day. I thought it was truly a precious place.”
Wenders' name has also been previously attached to a documentary about LACMA designer Peter Zumthor, the details of which are still forthcoming. Fans will hope the toilets conceit equates to more critical success than his previous foray into the design world, which was not well-received.
1 Comment
cool
the toilets are certainly filmic (if that is a word?). They are hard to photograph because they are so small but still have a lot of spatial play and movement built into them, almost demanding they are recorded in video. Personally I liked the one by Maki the best. Ando's toilet is nice but also feels a bit like I'm stuck in a pepper grinder.
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