Living On Tokyo Time

Director: Steven Okazaki
Screenwriters: John McCormick, Steven Okazaki

Institute History

  • 1987 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Director Steven Okazaki received an Academy Award nomination for his documentary film on American-Japanese internment during World War II, Unfinished Business. Now he debuts with his first dramatic feature, Living On Tokyo Time. The film centers around Ken (Ken Nakagawa), a shy, would-be rock-and-roller unwilling to engage in the world around him, and Kyoko(Minako Ohashi), a beautiful 19-year-old Japanese girl, on her first visit to America.

Kyoko has overstayed the limit on her green card, but is determined to prove to her family in Japan that she can do what she set out to do, namely, forget a broken engagement back home and stand on her own in America. Through the coaxing of a mutual friend, Ken decides to marry Kyoko so that she can stay in the U.S. What he didn't know was that he’d fall in love with this enigmatic young girl. Full of romance and rock ‘n roll, this bittersweet romantic comedy is fresh and funny. It has the earmark of a real hit.

— Lawrence Smith

Screening Details

Credits

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