Tokyo Techno Tribes

Streaming video - 2002

An informative documentary about contemporary urban life in the most technologically refined city in the world. Cyber youth cultures have developed through the imaginative and novel use of technology in the various media: music, art, pop, manga and fashion. Underlying social, cultural and economic trends are examined such as Japan's unique, isolated island culture, the post-economic boom recession and changing attitudes towards the role of the corporation in work and career attitudes...The film is a visually and aurally rich techno odyssey through the hyper-space, myriad layers, of Tokyo's sophisticated recreational cyber cultures that are producing some of the most intensely refined music, art and fashion scenes in the world. The... fascinating blending of tradition, ritual and craft are evident in Japan’s relationship to fashion, industrial design and ergonomic living. It is the most technologically savvy, cybernetically synchronised country in the world. Its highly disciplined work force and socialistic collectivism is a formidable economic juggernaut...But cracks are appearing within it’s fixed, rigid structures as an emerging younger generation break out of strict social codes of uniformity. A growing youth movement of lifestyle dissent and non conformity is arising. This is evidenced by way of outlandish shocking fashion fads, loud colourful raves in the mountains; and many young adults are choosing not to marry...Tokyo is a densely populated pressure cooker city of precision living. Within its microcosm of urban villages and armies of suit-clad workers, youth sub cultures have evolved strident, sophisticated, fashion trends, in an assertion of codified rebellion. The story features frank interviews with a reactionary new wave of 'individuated' Japanese cliques...These first-person narratives penetrate the corporate mask of uniformity. It follows the lives of a selection of Japanese striving for a new identity beyond being salary men and women for ‘the company’. In their quest for a redefined identity, some speak of a ‘new age romanticism’ derived from reconnecting with Buddhist teachings and early Japanese shamanism. Others reveal how they are reclaiming a re-invented Asian tradition from the blanket influence of post war American culture...Tokyo is the digerati temple of electronic recreational escapism. Artists high-jack corporate products in novel ways. The hi-res consumer tech hardware, that technocratic 'god-head' corporations, like Sony produce, are utilised by local artists to innovative effect. To create mind boggling animatronics creations derived from a sci-fi mythic-melange of comic fantasy and virtual realty futurisms, yet still referencing a rich tradition in allegory, ritualistic theatre and refined craftsmanship. more