Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (2009)

A dramatic thriller that centers on a fish-market employee who doubles as a contract killer.

Director:

Isabel Coixet

Writer:

Isabel Coixet

Stars:

Rinko Kikuchi, Sergi López, Min Tanaka

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Rinko Kikuchi	...	Ryu
Sergi López	...	David
Min Tanaka	...	Narrador
Manabu Oshio	...	Yoshi
Takeo Nakahara	...	Nagara
Hideo Sakaki	...	Ishida
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kôsuke Hishinuma
Jun Matsuo	...	Pukka
Joan Potau
Josep Sandoval

Storyline

A dramatic thriller that centers on a fish-market employee who doubles as a contract killer.

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Plot Keywords:

fish market | suicide | sound recording | gun | male frontal nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [jp]

Country:

Spain

Language:

Japanese English Catalan

Release Date:

28 August 2009 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Carte des sons de Tokyo

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mediapro, Versátil Cinema

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Isabel Coixet claims that came up with the idea of Rinko Kikuchi's character when she was promoting The Secret Life of Words in Tokio. Coixet was taking pictures on a walk through the city. She arrived at a fish market and tried to take one of a girl who was cleaning fish. The girl refused to get photographed, so Coixet started imagining possible reasons.

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Goofs

After David joins Ryu at the Love Hotel after cutting his hand, Rinko Kikuchi (Ryu) is laying on a couch. Her shoulder is covered in the two close ups but largely uncovered after the cut where the camera is further from her.

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Crazy Credits

After the final credits there's a short scene with the mysterious plant person in the subway tunnel.

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Connections

Referenced in Stockholms 20th International Film Festival (2009)

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Soundtracks

"One Dove"
Performed by Antony and the Johnsons

User Reviews

Flawed but beautiful.....

Isabel Coixet is a director I always liked since I saw My Life Without Me (2003)a few years back. Since then I tried to see the rest of her films.

This one just like Elegy (2008), seems to be Coixets attempt at becoming a more mainstream director, a bankable director able to do genre films.

However, Coixet seems very unfamiliar with genrefilmmaking and this film is very flawed, lacks focus and also brings almost nothing new the thriller genre.

Coxiet dramathriller about a Japanese girl who works at the fishmarket and also doubles as an assassin is basically your average story about a lonely assassin doing his/her job without emotion until one day....

Coixet tries to fill this tired, cliché ridden subgenre with filmpoetry, beautiful visuals, odd script and different approach but somewhere leaves the viewer with feeling that she knows almost nothing about this subgenre.

Experimenting with genres, mixing style and content in order to do something new and still stick to genretraditions is one hard thing to do.

Coixet doesn't handle this well, but there are good things to say about Rinko Kikuchis fishmarket girl, Sergi Lópezs wine merchant etc. Coixet has always been good directing actors and once again we get a film full of wonderful performances.

Had Coixet seen Le samouraï (1967), Xich lo/Cyclo (1995), Seom/The Isle (2000)etc we would have probably seen a different film altogether, instead of this flawed film.

However, see this film regardless of what the critics say, it has very nice performances, visuals etc.

And maybe next time Coixet will make a better genrefilm.