Explorations and experiments in visual representations - multimodality, sensory ethnography, reflexivity, autoethnographic vignettes, ethnographic photography and ba...
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Tokyo Pop Culture -or- More Weird Japan?
Here's a new documentary for the consideration of visual anthropologists...
TOKYOLOGY is a documentary exploring contemporary Japanese pop-culture.
[T]here's more to Tokyo than crazy nightlife and entertainment: from anime to architecture, political art to gaming, from shopping and style to the Cherry Blossom festival, the city has something for everyone, and its share of surprises, too!
Read more at the Tokyology web page.
Link to Tokyology:
http://tokyology.tv/index.html
There's a different and longer clip available from Boing Boing TV:
The film makes big claims about telling us how it really is in Tokyo, hearing from real people in Tokyo, all in 10 days time... Is this a useful bit about Japanese Pop Culture and/or more weird Japan? Within the realm of cultural representation, is Weird Japan/Cool Japan/Pop Japan a new form of orientalism? Are there similar films about New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, etc. that in effect represent the corresponding city's whole country/culture?
Hmm, this is pretty interesting. I consider myself at least a bit knowledgeable about he kind of 'odd' cultural subjects they happen to be exploring, and I want to see how they depict it, since it doesn't surprise me like it might other viewers who watch it just because it seems bizarre (if that makes any sense).
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine has even been to Alcatraz E.R., the insane asylum themed bar they featured. It sounds like a really crazy place, haha.