Many Tokyoites believe there are two versions of the city: Version A is where the Japanese inhabit — defined by cramped spaces, excessively long working hours and totally functional toilets. Version B is the Tokyo known to non-Japanese, which by all accounts is ambivalent, exotic and infinitely more romantic.
The majority of Japanese Tokyoites go through their lives steeped in the realities of Version A, slightly aware of but not really familiar with the goings-on in Version B, except via movies about Tokyo by foreign directors. True, we don't get as much attention as New York or Paris, but over the years, a sizable number of auteurs have taken a crack at the city, from Wim Wenders ("Notebook on Cities and Clothes") to Sofia Coppola ("Lost in Translation") to Michel Gondry ("Tokyo!").
The latest addition to that auspicious list is Isabel Coixet ("My Life Without Me," "The Secret Life of Words"), who has painted a picture of Tokyo that's so knowing and so intimate, you're tempted to think this city must have been the stage of a torrid love affair. For once, a Western filmmaker has composed gorgeous Tokyo cityscapes that are not touristy, not curious, not condescending and mercifully not phony.