The city has been imaged in diverse ways.

Focusing upon how film and architecture work together to create an urban imagery, choose 2 examples of cities to discuss. You might wish to compare contemporary Tokyo with another city or take examples from different historical periods. Contemporary Tokyo, currently the worlds largest agglomeration of architecture, built together to form a mass of seemingly uncoordinated buildings. The citys structure and form has been influenced greatly by its past, as buildings began to develop on the notion of nature. Tokyos buildings follow the contours of the hills, flowing along the ascending and descending gradient. However, to the western eye, Tokyos structure seems chaotic rather than organized. As shown in some films, directors express the peace and tranquillity in Tokyos more historic and traditional structures from Edo in Okuribito, directed by Yojiro Takita. In the animation Tekkonkinkreet, directed by Michael Arias, spectacles 1960s Tokyo in a stage of great development and economic growth spurt as the city undergoes transformation. Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola, portrays modern day Tokyo as a sea of moving images with the technological advancement of advertising dominating buildings, bombarding the protagonist, Bob Harris, with flashing billboards and signs. Through the comparison of these three films, we can observe the fast change of Tokyo over the periods of Edo to modern day Japan.

Tokyo is a city of chaos, birthed through destruction and resurrection, enriched with a diverse range of architecture, from the slums of the poor to the wealthy sky piercing towers. Films such as Tekkonkinkreet, directed by Michael Arias, depict 1960s Tokyo as a bustling city, bombarded by billboards and construction sites, illustrating the evolution of the city and its chaotic outlook. The difference in social classes is apparent as the leader of the yakuza oversees the city in his domineering tower, whilst the two orphans live in an abandoned car under a bridge. The city was constructed on the basis of an empty centre. An omnipresent emptiness facilitates a type of centrifugal growth, where the city grows from a spatial void. Michael Arias depicts this ever moving image of the city through seedy, narrow alleyways and a spiralling traffic jam, moving slowly outwards from the centre of the city. Screenshots of the scenery often overlooked the slums with taller buildings in the distance, which separates the social classes between the rich and the poor. Particularly in one of the scenes, a bridge is seen to act as a separator, defining the boundaries between the two parts of the city. The setting of the movie, Treasure Town, is overrun by yakuza and small thieves, implying a sense of insecurity and corruption within the city. The director has