some body comes into the light (2023)

Wim Wenders’ short film “some body comes into the light” was shown to the world for the first time at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2023. The foundational idea of what Wim Wenders’ feature film “Perfect Days” was based on—including the emotions that the main character had always been feeling throughout the narrative—was filmed on the very last day of production; however, what was captured was so visceral and enchanting that it would not have fit the scope of the film’s story anymore. But when Koji Yakusho was honored with the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Wenders had the idea to create a separate piece of work from this unused footage. Once paired with music by Jun Miyake, the visuals started to have a life of their own, telling a beautiful narrative through movement in time and light.

“I had encountered Min Tanaka years before and had also seen a performance of his. He was a great hero for my dear friend Pina Bausch, and she often spoke of Min with enormous respect. So when Min Tanaka actually agreed to play a small part in our film ‘Perfect Days,’ I was, on one hand, truly excited, but on the other also worried. Did I really have enough time to show his talent? Could I really do justice to his presence in the film?

As he was quite relaxed about playing ‘only’ the small part of the homeless man who is ‘invisible’ for many people, but certainly not for Hirayama, I was reassured and just swore myself that I was going to make the most of this character.

However, when the shooting came to an end, my doubts returned. Considering Min Tanaka-san’s giant talent, I felt again that I had underrepresented it. So when we had a very last shooting day, without our leading actor Koji Yakusho, in order to shoot missing city views and such stuff you always do on your last day, I announced that I would rather shoot half of that day with Min-san. So we hired a studio, my DoP, Franz Lustig, ordered many trees in plant pots, and we shot an entire performance by Min Tinaka, just him and the trees.

No other set, just lights and shadows. Min-san in a giant komorebi, so to speak. I hoped I could use a lot of this in the dream sequences of the film.

When even his presence in the dream sequences was minimal, after all, I suddenly realized (in Cannes at the prize ceremony) and instantly shared my idea with my good friend and co-writer Takuma Takasaki that what we still had to do for ‘Perfect Days’ was to make a complete edit of Min’s performance. Now that it exists, I’m very proud of it and of the fact that the homeless man in our film was not only seen by Hirayama-san, but will now be seen by many people all over the world. Min-san, you are one of the most amazing men I’ve ever met in my life!”

-Wim Wenders

Born in Tokyo on March 10, 1945. Having studied classical ballet and American modern dance for ten years, Tanaka developed “hyper-dance,” his original style that emphasized the psycho-physical unity of the body, in 1974, which had a pioneering impact on the contemporary art world and cultural community at the time. In 1978, he made his international debut at the Louvre Decorative Arts Museum, participating in the Paris Autumn Festival. His avant-garde performance, which went far beyond canonical genre boundaries, was highly acclaimed overseas. He has continued his dance activities with farming as its basis since 1985, when he moved to a village on the mountainside. His exploration into the origin of dance has taken a deeper approach, and the “Locus Focus” project, a site-specific and improvisational dance taking place in a wide variety of everyday life scenes throughout Japan and abroad, has been presented over 3,000 times. In 1988, he launched “Artcamp Hakushu”, an outdoor art festival—a rarity at the time in the country—utilizing the rural farming village in Yamanashi where he lived, and he continued the annual event for 21 years. He made his screen debut in 2002 with “Twilight Samurai,” directed by Yoji Yamada, and was awarded the Best Debutant Actor’s Award and the Best Supporting Actor’s Award by the 26th Japan Academy Awards. At the same time, he has appeared in numerous films, both nationally and internationally, ever since, including a Hollywood film in 2013 and a Korean film in 2019. A feature documentary about him, “The Unnameable Dance,” directed by Isshin Inudo, opened in January 2022.

Born 1958. After being discovered by legendary Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino, Berklee College of Music graduate Miyake started his career in music as a jazz trumpeter. Since then, he has also achieved success as a composer across a wide range of media, including films, documentaries, theatrical performances, and contemporary dance pieces. He has also worked on over 3,000 TV commercials, many of which have received numerous awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Miyake has worked closely with renowned artists such as Pina Bausch, Wim Wenders, Robert Wilson, Oliver Stone, Jean-Paul Goude, and Katsuhiro Otomo, earning worldwide respect for his distinct talents and ability to blend the most seemingly disparate elements of music. Since 2005, Miyake has been actively working in Paris. His solo albums, “Stolen from Strangers,” “Lost Memory Theatre act-1/act-2/act-3,” and “Whispered Garden,” have received multiple awards and have been selected as “best album of the year” by numerous European magazines. Miyake covered the streets of Paris in poster form after being selected “Man of 2009” by Galerie Lafayette Homme. Wim Wenders’ film “Pina”—for which Miyake contributed core music—was awarded the Best Documentary Award at the 2011 European Film Awards and nominated for Best Documentary at the 2012 Academy Awards.

In 2016, he gained worldwide attention for his arrangement of the national Japanese anthem “Kimigayo” for the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony at Rio de Janeiro.

In recent years, he has worked on film scores including “The Translators,” “Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer,” “An Artist of the Floating World,” “No Longer Human,” “Sanson,” and “Snow Country.” Miyake’s photo book “Moments / Jun Miyake and 48 Witnesses,” which depicts his life journey through long-form interviews and testimonies, including that of Wim Wenders, was released in 2022.