Sep 4

WIT Life #380: Tokyo Cowboy

Film, Translating/Interpreting, Uncategorized, WIT Life Comments Off on WIT Life #380: Tokyo Cowboy

Interpreter/Translator/Writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03) presents WIT Life, a periodic series about aspects of Japanese culture such as art, film, food and language. Stacy starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she offers some interesting tidbits and trends along with her own observations.

Happy early fall everyone! I can’t believe that six months have passed since my latest entry, but time seems to have a way of doing that. Last night I had the chance to check out the film Tokyo Cowboy starring actor Arata Iura. I was struck by Iura when I saw him in his first leading role in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 1998 film After Life, (Japanese title: ワンダフルライフ or wandafuru raifu) which is second only to Defending Your Life as my favorite movie about what happens when we die.

Tokyo Cowboy is directed by Marc Marriott and written by Dave Boyle and Ayako Fujitani, who also produced and stars in the film as Iura’s boss and love interest. The fish out of water story is reminiscent of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest Evil Does Not Exist, with a city slicker trying to change the ways of rural folk. Iura’s character businessman Hideki goes to visit the Montana cattle ranch his Japanese company owns. Developers plan to buy out this underperforming ranch, but Hideki has an idea to save it by raising wagyu. However, upon arrival he realizes this will be much more difficult to achieve than he initially thought.

According to Marriott, the impetus for making the movie was reading an article about a Montana ranch owned by a Japanese company that actually sent its employees there to train as cowboys. In addition to filming in Tokyo, the shoot took place over two weeks in Paradise Valley near Yellowstone National Park, and the breathtaking scenery alone is a reason to watch this movie. I was excited to see a film set in Montana, since it is the sister state of Kumamoto Prefecture where I lived while I was on JET.

Tokyo Cowboy is playing daily at 4 pm at AMC Empire 25 through September 11. Make sure to stay through the end of the credits for a bonus hot spring (温泉 or onsen) scene!