In 2009, there were no Japanese films in the main competition section of the Cannes Film Festival, but two films about Japan by Western directors were shortlisted at the same time. Both films, without exception, took Tokyo as the object of shooting, and the degree of controversy is even more staggering. One is "Map of the Voice of Tokyo" by Spanish female director Isabel Coixet, while the other is "Escape In". nothingness". I've never seen Tokyo in such a psychedelic and erotic imagery, and I was amazed by Gaspar Noe's extremely bold and innovative photography. The technical difficulty of looking down the camera is extremely high, but it accurately captures the complex and ever-changing meaning of the metropolis of Tokyo. The last half hour of the film flying freely in the night sky is even more amazing. Years later, "Gravity" and The photography in Bird's Eye View also draws a lot from it.

As for the plot of the movie, it is more monotonous and boring, and there are too many scenes of drug use and sex. In Gaspar Noe's work, form always outweighs content, or rather, form completely overpowers content. Such a thin story of an out-of-body soul seeking reincarnation and reincarnation was stretched to 160 minutes. Such a show-off of photography technology is not enough to support, and this kind of lens will inevitably cause physiological dizziness and vomiting after watching it for a long time. His shocking "Irrevocable" is similar. If this film is shown in short films, I think the effect must be more compact and thematic.

As for the city of Tokyo, the taste displayed by Westerners is always more or less unavoidable. Like the female body Sheng in the "Map of the Voice of Tokyo" mentioned at the beginning, this big city in Gaspar's eyes is the same. The city is still full of darkness and eccentricities. Undoubtedly, this kind of visual expression is very powerful. In addition to photography, the choice of lighting, color and music is extravagant, but it gives me the impression that it is more like Paris in the director's mind. I think among the Western directors, the closest thing to my understanding of Tokyo is still Sofia Coppola's narcissistic and heartwarming Lost in Translation.

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