Announcing: TOKYO UBER BLUES 🚲🚲🚲

Coming soon to theatres, home video... and your local public broadcasting service!

Tokyo Uber Blues

We’re very happy to announce our most recent title: Taku Aoyagi’s Tokyo Uber Blues (2021) — a thrilling, first-person account of gig work during the COVID-19 pandemic as it hit Japan, leaving the young filmmaker with no choice but to deliver for Uber. Formally daring in its intimacy and immediacy, we like to refer to it as Sorry We Missed You (2019) by way of Leviathan (2012) — or Take Out (2004) by way of Love & Pop (1998)!

Unemployed in the wake of the pandemic, 26 year-old filmmaker Taku Aoyagi decides to try his luck in Tokyo. Short on worldly possessions except for a bike and a phone, he becomes an Uber Eats rider. Now, he can decide his own hours and is free to choose when to take orders! But pedalling through deserted streets delivering boba tea to cloistered condos, he starts to wonder... what was it that Ken Loach said about the Uberization of society?

Thrillingly shot from a first-person perspective on a mixture of smartphones and GoPros, first-time vlogger-turned-director Taku Aoyagi invites the audience to join him on his daily rides speeding through a deserted city. Talking to himself and his peers, he asks: for a young, unemployed person with $40,000 of student debt, does gig-work offer a model for the future?

This delightful theatrical poster was designed by mad genius Benoît Tardif (who had previously designed our now-sold out slipcover for the Yeo Joon Han’s Sell Out!). He perfectly teased out some of the references, themes and textures inherent to the film, whether it's Aoyagi’s documenting of Abenomics, COVID anxiety, the breakneck pace of Tokyo or the encroaching “game-ification” of labour that makes such gig apps so attractive. And who doesn’t love an upside down anime WcDonald’s?

Tokyo Uber Blues x Public Broadcasting Service’s POV S37

We’ll be bringing Tokyo Uber Blues to theatres for select screenings across the US and Canada, and have also partnered with PBS, who will be bringing the film to your TV, and to streaming via their website and apps on Oct. 21 2024 as part of their legendary, long-running POV series.

POV, American Documentary’s multi-award-winning series and America’s longest-running non-fiction show on television, launches its 37th season with a dynamic slate of 14 feature documentaries. This season’s lineup spans a wide spectrum of sociopolitical and identity-focused themes, from economic inequality and survival in a changing world to the confluence of nature and science. At the forefront, a new generation of filmmakers brings profound perspectives and a renewed sense of urgency, actively reshaping the landscape of nonfiction films. Their storytelling not only reflects significant societal shifts but also sparks new critical conversations about our times.

Tokyo Uber Blues in Cinemas

Los Angeles Kani-heads can catch Tokyo Uber Blues as it premieres as part of Laemmle’s Culture Vulture series — September 23 and 24 across Claremont 5, Town Center 5, Monica Film Center and Glendale locations — with Taku Aoyagi in attendance.

Also screening here, with more to come:

• Sept. 25, 2024 at Suns Cinema, Washington DC, Schedule TBA

• Sept. 30, 2024, 14:00 at University of Southern California (TCC) with Q&A

• Oct. 2, 2024 onwards, 2024 at Darkside Cinema, Corvallis, Oregon, Schedule TBA

• Oct. 4, 2024, 20:45 + Oct. 6, 16:00, Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque

• Oct. 4, 2024 onwards, Lark Theatre, Larkspur, CA, Schedule TBA

• Nov. 15, Maysles Documentary Center, New York City, Schedule TBA

Bona is heading to Toronto, New York and more!

Our 4K restoration of Bona continues its festival run, with screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival this fall!

• Sept. 8, 2024, 18:30, Toronto International Film Festival, Lightbox 4 (Free!)

• Sept. 28, 17:00, New York Film Festival, Walter Reade Theatre

• Sept. 30, 12:45, New York Film Festival, Francesca Beale Theatre

• Oct. 2, 13:00, New York Film Festival, Francesca Beale Theatre

• Oct. 10, 21:30, New York Film Festival, Howard Gilman Theatre

More US festivals, and details on our December theatrical run for the film very soon!

Cleaners x Siné Institute’s Filipino Film Caravan

Last thing — While in Toronto for Bona, we have partnered with Siné Institute’s Filipino Film Caravan for a a pop-up screening of Glenn Barit’s Cleaners at The Royal on Sept. 7, 2024. This is in celebration of the 75th anniversary of Philippines-Canada diplomatic relations and the Philippine Film Industry Month and in collaboration with the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto, the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), in town for TIFF, and York University. Pull up!

Next week: News on Daisuke Miyazaki’s Plastic and a much-awaited Blu-ray drop!