- Date
07.06.2021 (Tue.)
- Location
JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles YouTube Channel
Award-Winning Film Director, Producer and Writer Michael Mann shares invaluable perspective, expertise and insight into the cinematic process of filming having recently shot his latest crime drama series Tokyo Vice in Japan. Cinema production in Japan has a history that spans more than 100 years and is one of the oldest film industries in the world. From its neon gleaming cityscapes to majestic ancient shrines, and to snowcapped mountains, Japan’s cultural tapestry remains to be one of the most desirable filming locations in the world. Director Mann takes us through the metropolitan streets of Tokyo as we learn first-hand the allure and aesthetic magic of production and location shoots in Japan.
The program is co-presented by the Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles, and JETRO Los Angeles.
Filming Location: JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles Level 5, Salon.
*To watch the video in full screen, please click on the image above, then click on the YouTube icon on the lower right-hand corner.
Special Guest
Michael Mann
Michael Mann, one of the most innovative and influential filmmakers in American cinema, is a four-time Academy Award® nominee, two-time Emmy®-winner and recipient of WGA, DGA and BAFTA Awards as a director, producer and writer. An auteur of both film and television, he is best known for titles such as HEAT, THE INSIDER, ALI, LAST OF THE MOHICANS, COLLATERAL, MIAMI VICE, THIEF, MANHUNTER, JERICHO MILE and DRUG WARS: THE CAMARENA STORY.
Mann directed the pilot and executive produced HBO Max’s upcoming Tokyo Vice, starring Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe. Mann also has an eponymous line with William Morrow publishers, Michael Mann Books. Through this banner, he published Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire by New York Times best-selling author Elaine Shannon. In addition to writing the foreword, he is also working on a screen adaptation. The banner will next publish a companion novel to Mann’s HEAT.
Speakers
Consul General Akira Muto
Consul General Akira Muto graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1985. Having served at the Embassies of Japan in Washington DC and Moscow, he held directorships for Free Trade Agreement & Economic Partnership, Intelligence & Analysis, Russian Affairs, and Foreign Policy Coordination between 2004 and 2012; and in 2012, he became Consul General of Japan in Boston. He served as Deputy Director General, European Affairs Bureau (Ambassador, 2014-15); and served in the National Security Secretariat (2015-16).
He was Minister, Embassy of Japan in the U.S. (Global Affiliate Visiting Scholar, Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University) (2018-19). He became Consul General of Japan in Los Angeles in 2019.
Yuko Kaifu
Prior to joining Japan House in January 2016, she was Managing Director in the Corporate Communications Department of MUFG Union Bank, owned by the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, where she was charged with media relations, internal/external publications of the bank, and with CSR activities for the Japanese and Japanese American communities and for the US-Japan relations.
She started her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Her past assignments include the Embassy of Japan in Canada, North American Affairs Bureau, Economic Cooperation Bureau, Foreign Policy Bureau, and Cultural Affairs Department, where she was Deputy Director in Tokyo. During her service at the Ministry, she was appointed official interpreter for Her Majesty the Empress, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Japan.
After she served as Consul at the Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles from 2001 to 2007, she left the government to work as Vice President of the Japanese American National Museum. She has sat on the boards of various community organizations including Nisei Week Foundation and International Visitors Council of Los Angeles, and is the Executive Vice President of Japan Business Association of Southern California, and is honorary advisor for the Japanese Flower Arrangement Association of Southern California, the Omote Senke Tea Ceremony Association of Southern California and the North American Calligraphy Association.
She graduated from Nara Women’s University and received Master’s degree in Sociology from Queen’s University in Canada.