TOKYO STORIES / TOKYO Vortex

“Why do we gather here?”
This short visual poem is based on the director’s personal experience of moving from Gifu to Tokyo, exploring the city’s pull and the sense of alienation it creates. The journey from the countryside to Tokyo is not only a physical shift, but a process in which individual presence is drawn into a larger vortex.
People gather in this uncomfortable space and gradually become part of a standardized mass. Within this, the film captures a sense of solitude and an instinctive resistance to the city’s systems, expressed through a wordless, surreal approach.

Director

Mai Nonomura

Time

00:03:50

Country

Japan

Genre

Fantasy

Year

2026