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LMGI COMPASS Spring 2024
"I joined the project as a scout in 2020," says Aikawa.
"Janice Polley/LMGI was the SLM for the pilot and was
very welcoming."
"I didn't communicate with him much directly due
to the language barrier," recalls Polley, "but he was a
great scout. That was obvious."
She remembers having a conversation early on with
Aikawa and the rest of the team (via a translator) in
which she told them that it was absolutely critical for
them to help Tokyo government officials understand
how important international film and television could
be to the city, and to the country in general.
"Basically, I told them not to give up or give in," she
says.
But just days into filming the pilot, the pandemic
shut production down. "We were still looking for
locations all over the city and beyond," Aikawa says,
"but then, of course, everything stopped." It would be
eight long months before filming for the pilot could
once again move forward.
TOKYO IN TOKYO
"There were, initially, many versions of 'Tokyo,'
including the possibility of shooting Osaka for Tokyo,
which is a lot easier," Mann said in a 2022 interview with Gold
Derby editor Christopher Rosen, "but I wanted to do Tokyo in
Tokyo and have the viewers experience this immersion into
Jake's life."
That worked for Rogers and Poul. Even though filming in
Tokyo would offer many challenges, they both knew the city
well and understood what filming there would mean for the
series.
Rogers grew up in Malaysia and, as a child, would visit
Tokyo frequently. Poul had lived in Japan for three months
at age 17 as an exchange student and completely fell in love
with the country. While at university, he majored in Japanese
language and literature and spent a year living in Tokyo,
during which time he became fluent in the language.
One of the critical locations Mann selected early on was an
eight-story office building near the Tokyo Bay which would
serve as The Meicho offices. Initially, it was thought to be
less than ideal.
"It's right in the middle of Tokyo," Poul says, "parking is a
nightmare, and it's a building that's being used on other floors
for a lot of different things, so there's a ton of restrictions.
It was also a difficult negotiation and very expensive, but
Michael understood the value of that location and the ability
to look out of the windows and see the city for real, see the
elevated train… I mean, you could spend a lot and use CGI
Tokyo. Photo by Masa Aikawa/LMGI
