{"id":105242,"date":"2025-07-16T13:32:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T04:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/papersky.jp\/?p=105242"},"modified":"2025-07-16T13:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T04:53:16","slug":"movie_yoyogi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/papersky.jp\/en\/movie_yoyogi\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Observational Documentary Film YOYOGI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back when I first moved to Berlin, I lived near a mid-sized park with a striking gate-like iron sculpture at its center. It had a few sport and cultural spaces, but what stood out most was how differently people used the park. Everyone had their own way of spending time there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kids ran wild while neighbors walked their dogs. People picnicked on the grassy slope. On weekends, a father could be seen slow-roasting a whole pig from the morning, preparing a feast for his family. Along the fence of the sports field, a few Roma families lived in tents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On May Day (May 1st), the park became a central gathering point, drawing huge crowds. By the next morning, a small mountain of beer bottles had appeared. During Berlin\u2019s brief summer, sunbathers\u2014some fully nude\u2014stretched out across the lawns, soaking in every last drop of scarce sun. A middle-aged man jogged past, chest piercings bouncing as he ran. A handful of bored-looking goats loitered in the petting area, and after dark, shadowy figures in black drifted in to sell drugs, peacefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started visiting that park every day; jogging in the mornings, lounging in the afternoons, and walking home through it at night on my way back from the station. One evening, as I was making my usual way home, casually brushing off a peaceful offer from a local dealer, a fox appeared in front of me. It looked at me just once, then, without alarm, nonchalantly disappeared into the bushes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having never lived in a place where wild foxes roam the streets, I was genuinely surprised. After that, I found myself scanning the park every time I went, hoping to see it again. Despite my hope, however, I never did. Instead, I ended up wandering deeper and deeper into the park, until one day I realized I had come to know it intimately\u2014every corner, every path. At some point, without noticing, I had begun wanting to document this place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But shortly after, I was forced to leave my apartment near the park. At the time, Berlin was in the midst of a housing crisis\u2014rents were soaring, and people were regularly being pushed out for unfair reasons. (From what I hear, things have only gotten worse since.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no choice but to move. With the change in neighborhood, I stopped going to the park, stopped looking for the fox. The idea of documenting that place was quietly tucked away in a corner of my mind that I rarely opened again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years later, in 2018, I relocated to Tokyo. When a friend introduced me to the YOYOGI film project, memories of that park in Berlin came rushing back. The quiet fox, the drug dealers, everything. I decided to join the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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