The Making of Roppongi Heights

Inspiration Behind my First Film

I haven’t always been interested in making movies. I wouldn’t even consider myself a filmbuff. I only like 3 Quentin Tarantino movies, I don’t particularly care for 1940’s noir films or have any idea about film theory. With that being said some how I found myself producing my own short film—a pretty good one according to my friends and family at least.

Trailer for Roppongii Heights

Fall last year I was considering taking a 3 day film workshop at the Japan English Language Film School in Tokyo since I’ve been getting more into visual storytelling. At the same time, I also connected with a friend who was encouraging me to dive into the world of visual media. I already have a strong portfolio in writing for magazines, but hardly any credentials for my creative works (unless you count fanfiction). Originally I wanted to publish a romance novel and create small commercial bits behind it to help promote the book.

I needed to practice since I didn’t really know what I was doing behind the camera, and that friend was supposed to help me on these projects (she didn’t lol), and we came up with the idea to short a scary movie for Halloween. Within a week we were in production mode, writing, casting, location scouting, and by the end September we already had basically the whole crew together.

Although the project took a lot longer than I expected with some major set backs in timing, line changes, and location scouting, it took us about 3 months to finish everything.

Some BTS Photos

The Inspiration Behind the Story

Throughout this whole writing process, the saying “Art imitates real life” kept popping into my head. I often see it when referred to silly memes but after producing I can see how true to form that is. The concept for the movie was inspired heavily by American female rappers— in particular Cardi B. After reading an article about how she used to drug and rob men. It’s not exactly the most enlightening story but, it’s real. And you’ll never find a better inspiration for your artwork than real life.

Photos Taken in Roppongi/ Azabu Juban

For those who don't know, Roppongi is a famous district in Tokyo that was known for it's eccentric bubbling nightlife in the 80's and 90's. It was also a popular area for foreigners because this was mostly where the diplomats and their families lived, so it was a pretty internationalized area compared to the rest of Japan. After the economy collapsed in the mid-90's it started to gain a seedier reputation for crime and drugs. It also didn't help many foreign nationals (mostly Africans) began to move in and buy up the local clubs and bars. Incidents such as physical & sexual assaults, drink spiking, and robbing began to rise in the area that tourists were often warned against visiting those places.

So obviously if I'm going to build a story around scamming then I need to set it in an area that's well known for that. Despite Roppongi's seedier reputation, it's actually not a bad place to visit if you're interested in the Japanese nightlife. The clubs and bars in this area are known to cater to a more "urban" crowd playing Afro-Dance, Hip-Hop & R&B attracting a large number of foreign nationals (Americans, military soldiers, DJs, dancers, etc.), and Japanese who are interested in foreign nationals. I think the crime rate has decreased since the early 2010's but it's always important to use discretion when traveling around foreign countries.

There's still a lot for me to learn, in terms of my own artistry but this was certainly the first step in leaving my own mark in the world. I'm not sure where this project will take me but I'm very much looking forward to the journey.

Roppongi Heights Movie Poster