Tokyo Origami

The episodes

Eight short films, each a different life in and around Tokyo.

1. Career Women — women reshaping traditionally male-dominated professions.
2. Breakdancing — champions and an Olympic hopeful, as breaking arrives at the Games.
3. Scooter Girl — a rider touring the Izu Peninsula by scooter.
4. From Fish Market to Sushi — an award-winning chef’s day, from the market to the counter.
5. Karate in Japan — a young boy learning karate in Okinawa, its birthplace.
6. Tattoos and Taboos — Japan’s tattoo art and Tokyo’s underground cosplay scene.
7. What Shinto Means to Me — a spiritual day among the shrines.
8. Eyes of an Otaku — Akihabara’s retro games and collectibles (Best Short, BRNO 2023).

Episode 8 — Through the Eyes of an Otaku

Episode 8, Through the Eyes of an Otaku, won Best Short at the 2023 BRNO Fulldome Festival — the jury calling it “an unexpectedly haunting experience,” beginning in amusement and veering into heartbreak, its fixed 360° camera lending the small room a trapped intimacy. The episode follows a man who built a life and career out of a childhood spent largely alone with video games; the score moves with him, from playful and colourful to genuine pathos.

Watch

Behind-the-scenes look at the series.

Listen

Selected cues from the score.

Selected cues drop in during media curation.

From the series

Full 360° frames from across the episodes, filmed on location in Japan — including the drone captures of the Izu Peninsula.

Related work: Tokyo Olympics in VR

Around the same time, the same Sip / COSM team was producing VR streams of the COVID-delayed Tokyo Olympics for the Oculus headset — short athlete films broadcast in virtual reality by the Olympic Broadcasting Service with Intel — with music by Mark Slater, from opening fanfares to emotional builds and big finishes.

More scores

All music & film →