MovieChat Forums > Kiseki (2011) Discussion > Why is housing so 'tidy'?

Why is housing so 'tidy'?

posted 12 years ago by chuck-526
9 replies | jump to latest

I was struck by the extreme modesty and variability of the living arrangements (often over or behind a storefront [with the store door sometimes serving as the house door too], or not as big as a double garage). Yet everything was tidy: no graffiti whatsoever, no broken glass nor unpainted wood anywhere, dust from the volcano obsessively wiped up.

I wonder if everywhere in Japan is still really like that, or if norms are changing. And I'm quite puzzled why some other places -that at first seem similar- don't look at all like that.

[–] captainsuzy 12 years ago

Either sparse or luxurious living conditions: graffiti and littering is rare in Japan. I lived in Osaka for a while, and this is the impression I got after visiting different parts of the country. I´m from Europe, (have also lived in California), and I´m convinced that graffiti and littering is sort of a "western thing". I might be wrong, but I am sure that there are a lot more people employed by the state of Japan to do maintenance work and cleaning of public spaces, than there are here in Europe and the US.

[–] chuck-526 12 years ago

I remember watching one movie that was partially shot in the Gaza Strip. When all the shops rolled down their metal screens to close at night, the graffiti was outrageous. I don't know if the camera picked what it wanted to see, or if it's typical.

That movie seems to illustrate both one possible extreme and that it's not just a western thing, but it's obviously not the case here. My question is "why"? Is the culture or the economy very different in a way that matters for graffiti? Is what matters the current actions of the government? Or ...? (Or is the whole thing just a red herring as what was shown of the Gaza Strip isn't at all typical?)

[–] eternalraven 11 years ago

The Gaza Strip is not in Japan...

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[–] Wilburrabbit 10 years ago

Do you mean Ginza? Area was a little grubby from what I remember.

[–] chuck-526 10 years ago

No. The other movie I saw, the one that brought to my mind the whole issue of tidiness, and which I thought maybe provided a useful comparison, was not set in Japan. Sorry for the apparent confusion.

[–] Zerose 11 years ago

LOL. Thanks for giving me the biggest laugh of the day.

[–] monkeymechx 10 years ago

If you watch Nobody Knows, by the same director, you can see Japanese grafiti and uncleanliness in many shots. Quite the opposite side of the friendly clean face exhibited in this movie.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] 10 years ago

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