I discovered this station by reading the wonderful mangas of Tsusaka Hojo: indeed, the station is a favorite location in his work. Thus, this documentary offers me the opportunity to get a real look at this place and i must admit that Hojo draws very accurately those platforms. Then, as it's Japan, i get attentive as this country really puzzles me and in addition, i can also compare cultures as my hometown Paris houses the biggest station in Europa ("Gare du Nord"). So, as the documentary wants to follow an entire day and starts at 01.00 am with the intervention of the cleaning team, I notice at once a big shift: here, the workers are dressed with care and they seem to be very proud of this thankless job. The other big difference is that the station looks clean, modern, high-tech and shiny whereas mine is dark, tidy, and out of time. We could also say that Japanese people seems calm and french people are noisy but quickly, i realize that their dedication serves a rather inhuman system. Agents are wake up by automatized beds, passengers are pushed like fish in a can, punctuality is evaluated in seconds, one single station for thousands people, workers live faraway. It's like urbanization going mad: the city appears to not be any more at the will of men bur rather to twist men to its needs: Maybe the documentary is maybe biased but i can understand why Japan has the highest rate of suicides and if my actual life is a bit empty, at least, my environment isn't so totally blind!
Review of Episode #1.4
