Kyoto would seem to be the most international city in Japan, if the number of foreign tourists were the only criterion. More than a million visit the city annually, giving the 1.5 million locals, especially ones living and working in and near the major tourist sites, plenty of exposure to outlanders.
But as Yuki Saito's film "The Old Capital" makes clear, residents of this ancient city, whose Kyoto ties may extend back centuries, do not all embrace this influx. It represents one of many threats to the traditional culture and way of life that attract many visitors to the city in the first place.
Photographed by cinematographer Jitsu Toyota, the older, less-trafficked parts of Kyoto and the nearby forests and streams have rarely looked so coffee-table-book lovely. Glimpses of the noisy modern city or tourist-clogged areas like the Gion district are by contrast rare.