About a month ago I learned about Tokyo!, a movie project com­posed of three short films about the afore­men­tioned city.

One of the things that came to my atten­tion when read­ing about it, was that none of the direc­tors are Japanese. It made me think: is this depic­tion going to be real­is­tic or just a foreigner’s fool­ish detached per­cep­tion of the city? Anyhow, it seemed intrigu­ing enough to be worth the trip to BAM, pay $12 and find out. (It didn’t hurt that Michel Gondry is one of the directors!)

In “Interior Design,” Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind), an all-time favorite direc­tor of mine, did not dis­ap­point with his story of a young film­maker and his girl­friend in their tran­si­tion into Tokyo. His sta­ple of funny and dream­like visu­als are ever present in this film.

“Merde” by Leos Carax (The Lovers on the Bridge) is a polit­i­cal black com­edy that explores Japanese’s aver­sion for races. The star is a beast-man that lives in the sew­ers, eats flow­ers and cash, and walks around the city prank­ing and scar­ing cit­i­zens.  It felt a lit­tle too long for a short film, but good in the end.

It is Bong Joon-ho (The Host) a Korean direc­tor, who in my opin­ion got the most inter­est­ing con­tem­po­rary and real­is­tic story with “Shaking Tokyo.” He explores the world of a hikiko­mori (a per­son that decides not to leave his house and not have human con­tact again in his life) who decides to leave his home after a series of earthquakes.