Experiencing Interruptions?

West End Girls

Sally, trying to make a living by vlogging, has come to the west side of Shinjuku in downtown Tokyo. There she meets Kanya, a student from Cambodia. One day, Kanya tells Sally she also wants to vlog for living.

  • Hiroki Kataoka
    Director
  • Hiroki Kataoka
    Writer
  • Takeshi Okamoto
    Producer
  • Itsuki Fujii
    Key Cast
    "Sally"
  • Rathana Veasna
    Key Cast
    "Kanya"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    24 minutes 58 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 21, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    10,000,000 JPY
  • Country of Origin:
    Japan
  • Country of Filming:
    Japan
  • Language:
    Japanese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2020
    Tokyo
    Japan
    September 21, 2020
    World Premiere
    Audience Award / Asia International & Japan Program
Distribution Information
  • NEWTOWN Inc.
    Distributor
    Country: Japan
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Hiroki Kataoka

Director Hiroki Kataoka started working on films and drama creation while at Kyoto University of Art and Design(current Kyoto University of the Arts), working under filmmakers Kaizo Hayashi and Lee Chang-dong. After graduating, he went on to create documentary programs for NHK(Japan Broadcasting Corporation), TV drama shows for Asahi Television Broadcasting Corporation and team videos for J.League, Japan’s professional football league. He is the president of NEWTOWN.Inc, a production company he founded in 2018, with a concept of creating a city of the future.

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Director Statement

I always wanted to create a film that depicts an honest portrayal of Japan’s social issues. The film takes place in the west side of Shinjuku, the biggest downtown area of Tokyo and an area in which I conducted a lot of field research. By immersing myself in the beat of the town, I uncovered various problems and picked the two main themes for my film; poverty among young people and a sense of belongingness, or the loss of it.
Surprisingly enough in Japan, one of the wealthier countries in the world, many young people are facing poverty. One in three young adults are contract workers. Many of them hop from one job to another without being able to dream big. No wonder some are falsely led to believe that there is an opportunity to earn money on the Internet by doing what they love. I believe in addition to the financial inequalities, the lack of opportunities to build one’s knowledge and imagination is the cause of the poverty among young people.
Another issue is the prevailing sense of losing one’s place in society, even if you have a house to go back to every day. With these thoughts in mind, I developed the two main characters, Sally and Kanya, for this story.
I finished this film in the early months of 2020. The world had gone into lockdowns soon after and our physical connection with others had become a distant memory. We longed for human connection and the sense of belongingness online or somewhere new. The last scene in the film may have inadvertently depicted our new future. It would be interesting to imagine how these two girls are doing now in our post pandemic world. I hope you spend a little bit of time thinking about it after watching my film.