New York Filming Locations: Batman Forever (1995) & The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Posted on October 1, 2012 by tokyofox

The third and final instalment of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies was filmed in Britain, India and the USA with New York playing its part and it’s there that we start this entry as it’s fair to say that this one is far more loved than ‘Batman Forever‘.

The exterior of Gotham City Stock Exchange (41 minutes) is on Wall Street and its the JPMorgan Building at number 23 (below) on the corner of Broad Street which is used though sadly it was under construction when I was in town which can be one of the most frustrating things on such location hunting expeditions. For the record, it’s interior was filmed all the way over in Los Angeles.

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The aerial shots of Gotham City are not surprisingly (especially in an article about the locations of this famous city!) the skyscrapers of Manhattan in New York and the entrance to ‘Wayne Enterprises’ (62 minutes) is Trump Tower (below) on 725 5th Avenue at East 56th Street. Perhaps this was chosen to reflect the similarities in celebrity businessman status between Donald Trump and Bruce Wayne.

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Though strictly not New York, Military Park Station in New Jersey is close enough to the Big Apple to be combined with though I never did make it to this subway tunnel on the Newark Light Rail which is where Kyle lures Batman into Bane’s trap. When Gotham is later closed off under Bane’s power, Queensboro Bridge (below) over the East River in New York can be briefly seen with tanks lined up on it.

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Whilst ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ is generally considered to be much better than ‘Batman Forever‘ (1995) it doesn’t mean that the Joel Schumacher directed film wasn’t without its hype. Val Kilmer had taken over the main role from Michael Keaton and with a support cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman it was a strong line-up. Batman’s partner Robin (Chris O’Donnell) also entered the fray and one of my favourite ever bands U2 recorded the much anticipated soundtrack ‘Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me‘ which I can even remember DJ Simon Mayo playing twice in succession when it got its first ever airplay on BBC Radio One.

Bruce Wayne arrives at Surrogate’s Court on 31 Chambers Street (below) at Centre Street in Lower Manhattan and this was the office exterior of Dr Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman). I didn’t have the screenshots with me when I went here early one morning so sadly I didn’t snap the place from the angles where Wayne is seen on 29 minutes.

     

All of Gotham society including Wayne and Chase turn up at The Ritz Gotham Hotel on 70 minutes where Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey) has his party is also in Lower Manhattan and is in fact the old US Customs House on 1 Bowling Green at Broadway. It is now the National Museum of the American Indian (below) and also featured in ‘Ghostbusters II‘.

   

You can see the London Filming Locations of Batman here.

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Back At The Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis Tournament In Tokyo

Posted on September 28, 2012 by tokyofox

This years Toray Pan Pacific Open (TPPO) tennis tournament in Tokyo promised to be better than usual with 12 of the world’s top 13 women participating for big prize money and a large amount of ranking points. Sadly, that one missing player was the one and only Continue reading →

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Dining Out: Mingalaba (Burmese)

Posted on September 25, 2012 by tokyofox

Myanmar? Burma? Which is the correct one, I really don’t know but then again my knowledge of all things Burmese is very minimal. That is slowly changing due to one of my students bringing in articles about Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss a few months ago. I was very intrigued by her amazing story and about the country itself so with this heightened interest I went for some Burmese food after work last Wednesday with Mostyn, my guest in tow!

 

I was surprised to learn recently that there are at least six Burmese restaurants in Takadanobaba with us choosing Mingalaba at 2-14-8 Takadanoba (3F) as it was close to the station and its name seemed the funniest. Naturally we started with a couple of cans of Myanmar beer at 550 yen a piece and then set about ordering some local Burmese food from the very nice lady working there.

 

For starters we had la pet thop (mixed tea leaf salad) but little did I know that it was covered in peanuts so I only picked at that one a bit. La Pet Thop boys, as Mostyn and I will be called from now on, then worked our way through to fu cho (fried yellow tofu), pei kala hinn (yellow pea and vegetable curry) and nang jii thop (thick flour noodles with chicken and lemon sauce). All of these were really really lovely and a few more beers were washed down in a place which had a nice atmosphere with a couple of other groups in the place.

 

Before going to this restaurant I had watched ‘The Lady‘ starring Michelle Yeoh (former Bond girl and star of ‘Memoirs of a Geisha‘) which only just came out in Japan a couple of months ago albeit with a very limited release. I watched the 2011 film on YouTube which was ok when the film was in English but there were no subtitles for the Burmese language bits which account for 30-40% of the movie (at a guess) thereby meaning I missed out on a lot of story. I have since watched it again in complete English and was very moved by it and thought that Yeoh’s portrayal of Suu Kyi was so impressive as shown by her Burmese language skills, physical resemblance (she lost a lot of weight before taking on the role), poise, elegance and the emotion involved in many of the scenes.

 

For those not in the know ‘The Lady‘ is basically a love story about how Suu Kyi and her British husband Michael (David Thewlis) sacrificed their own family happiness in the name of Burma’s democracy movement during periods of long separation and political turmoil in what was at times a dangerous hostile regime.

Furthermore, I was recently chatting to one of my students about Myanmar as her husband is currently living there and she said there would be direct flights between Tokyo and Yangon from October this year so a trip over there next year could well be a possibility though it definitely won’t include any filming locations as it was filmed in Thailand.

Click here to read my ‘Little Myanmar In Takadanobaba’ article

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New York Filming Locations: Superman (1978)

Posted on September 22, 2012 by tokyofox

It may not get quite the same hype as Batman or Spider-Man but Superman is arguably the most famous super-hero and one that brings back memories of my early childhood and the last day of school term where we often seemed to watch a Superman movie. I can only remember certain scenes from the Christopher Reeve films and it is actually the mid 90’s TV series ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman‘ which I remember more fondly and most of my Superman knowledge comes from that show.

The Daily Planet offices in the 1978 film where Clark Kent of course works is at 220 East 42nd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. It actually is a newspaper office as its known as the News Building. This place plays a pretty important part in the scheme of things as after leaving work one night Kent sees a helicopter crash on the building’s roof and from this night on he becomes known as Superman! His mission: “To fight for truth, justice and the American Way”

     

Lois Lane’s apartment (below) is at 240 Central Park South.

 

The statue of Liberty (above) and Brooklyn Bridge (below) also feature in this Richard Donner directed movie with the former seeing Superman take Lois around the New York icon one night.

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New York Filming Locations: Coming To America (1988)

Posted on September 19, 2012 by tokyofox

When my family finally caught up with the rest of Britain and got a video recorder in the late 80’s the first film we rented was ‘Coming To America‘ starring Eddie Murphy; a film I still have fond affection for now and it was (kind of) exciting for me to go to the apartment. Its on 392 South 5th St at Hooper St just a minute away from Hewes St Metro station. When African Prince Akeem (Murphy) and his servant Semmi (Arsenio Hall) arrive in ‘Queens’ (below) they look for lodgings at the nearest apartment complex which just happened to be this place in Brooklyn. When Akeem first meets the landlord you can just about see the number of the building on the front door.

    

I was actually more interested in locating the McDowell’s restaurant (below) which featured heavily throughout with Akeem and Seemi working for Cleo McDowell at this converted restaurant. It is at 8507 Queens Blvd near Grand Av Newtown metro station in Queens but when I was in the vicinity (on my way to find a Spider-Man location or two) I couldn’t see it so I’ve taken this one from the excellent onthesetofnewyork.com site. It’s actually a ‘Wendy’s’ Hamburger restaurant at this location that doubled up as the fast-food chain which probably gave McDonalds lawyers a bit of a headache!

     

Another place I somehow missed (or rather forgot to photo! There’s a lot of things to take care of on these trips that its difficult to keep up with it all sometimes) was the Waldorf Astoria Hotel (above) at 301 Park Avenue. Akeem’s father King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) checks in here after receiving Semmi’s telegram.

The basketball match where Akeem goes on a double date with Patrice McDowell, Lisa McDowell and Darryl Jenks is at Madison Square Gardens (below) at 4 Penn Plaza.

 

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Review: Films Set In Japan – The Bad News Bears Go To Japan (1978)

Posted on September 16, 2012 by tokyofox

We all know that when the writers of a TV show or film franchise (and I use that term in the loosest sense regarding this movie!) run out of ideas they take the project overseas. Now, I’m not too sure how relevant that idea is to ‘Bad News Bears…‘ as I haven’t seen the two prequels to this film but it would seem that there were never any ideas in the first place!

Having spectacularly failed to see a baseball game last month whilst in New York I thought I’d slip this DVD into the player to see if I could enjoy another baseball film as much as I liked ‘Mr Baseball‘ starring Tom Selleck. Yes, I do own this ‘Bad News Bears…‘ DVD as indeed do I for almost all of the films set in Japan reviewed on this site. Sad indeed given the average Tokyo Fox rating of them!

“Caught in a clash of cultures and ready to wreak more havoc on Japan than Godzilla” is the blurb on the back of the DVD which is an overly-used tagline but given that this film is from 1978 it seems like they were years ahead of their time!

In terms of kids films it makes the ‘3 Ninja’s Kick Back‘ movie seem like an Academy Award winner! There’s no doubt that this film is terrible but every film has some good in it and this one is no exception. Its only 92 minutes in length which we should be thankful about! It features some very nice Japanese scenery at times where filmed at various temples and shrines as we see the older kid Kelly dating a child Japanese geisha girl. She doesn’t speak any English yet she seems to understand everything he says. Such a love story is laughable yet is the kind of the story I have heard about happening here! My favourite scene is the fictional advert for a baseball bat which sees one of the young boys use the equipment to take out Godzilla on a miniature Japanese-scenery set.

 

The storyline? It’s bear-ly worth the effort but basically it centres around some vague plot to do with Martin Lazar (Tony Curtis) thinking he can earn big bucks by sending the Bears to Japan for a highly publicized exhibition game against some little league baseball team who were upset that no U.S. team had visited recently. That’s about it really. There’s some very dull baseball scenes at the end of the film as well as some practice in the first part but overall its fairly lacking in baseball action and is instead padded out with some completely irrelevant scenes of karate, sumo and variety show action.

 

Tokyo Fox Rating 3/10

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Dining Out: L’Azure (Tunisian)

Posted on September 13, 2012 by tokyofox

It often gets forgotten that when I went to Tunisia in August 2009 the holiday wasn’t only about things to do with Star Wars. Whilst that did take up the majority of my attention I did see and do a fair few other things too such as eating local food including camel steaks. Hungry to sample some more Tunisian food I headed to Shin Okubo last Friday. Now, this area may be more synonymous with Korean food but there are many other international restaurants there including two serving Tunisian cuisine. As ‘Sahara’ also included Moroccan fare I chose to go to ‘L’Azure’ which can be found at 1-24-8 Hyakunincho in Shinjuku-ku. The fact that this one also served a lunch menu (between 11.00am and 2.30pm) and the other one didn’t, made my decision easier.

 

When my girlfriend and I arrived just after midday the place was full to capacity which perhaps isn’t too hard given that the place is tiny and only seats about 20 people. The place is decorated in a blue colour with lots of typical Tunisian objects and there is a choice of two lunch courses for 800-900 yen which is extremely good value for such a place.

I went for the lasagne, rice and salad which wasn’t good. It was great! Not sure how much of a truly Tunisian dish it is though! Also included was a fruit dessert and a special type of coffee but I declined that thinking it would be the end of it. However, the owner Mourad later asked me if I’d prefer a mint tea which I agreed to without hesitation. Once everyone else had paid-up and gone we got speaking to the multi-lingual owner about the restaurant and inevitably I bored him with where I had been in the north African country a few years previous.

 

You can read my other ‘Dining Out’ articles here

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New York Filming Locations: I Am Legend (2007)

Posted on September 10, 2012 by tokyofox

Will Smith plays Robert Neville; a scientist unable to stop a deadly man-made virus spreading which he is immune to and the only human survivor in New York City and perhaps the world. His townhouse is at 11 Washington Square Park North and if my memory serves me correctly is where he sends out daily radio messages in the desperate hope of finding any other survivors who might be out there.

 

Just across the road from his apartment is Washington Square which he views from his window. This place would normally be a great place to chill out and relax but sadly when I was there it was absolutely bucketing it down with rain and the arch could offer only a slight respite from the downpour. I have since seen this area featured in a fair few other movies and TV programmes.

 

The flatiron building at 175 5th Avenue is later seen as he drives around the empty streets of New York. This is a cool looking construction which was completed in 1902 and the Flatiron district around it got its name from the building.

 

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New York Filming Locations: Sex And The City (1998-2004)

Posted on September 7, 2012 by tokyofox

When I first came to Japan all those years ago there weren’t (and indeed still aren’t) too many English language programmes on so I ended up watching episodes of all kinds of sh*te and that included a few episodes of ‘Sex and the City‘

Carrie Bradshaw’s (Sarah Jessica Parker) apartment is given as East 73rd Street in the TV series but is actually 66 Perry Street at West 4th Street in Greenwich Village. As expected the steps were chained off to stop fans from sitting on the steps or whatever. A black box asking for charity donations in return for the photos you take is a small price to pay for a photo op at one of TV”s most famous apartments.

 

I never saw the actual episode in which The Magnolia Bakery featured but research tells me it was season 3 episode 5 and was titled “No Ifs, Ands, Or Butts.” The reason I knew about this place was thanks to a CNN news feature story about the place and the cup cake craze which started following its appearance in the series. The shop can be found at 401 Bleeker Street and is actually just round the corner from Carrie’s apartment. There may be no bench or seats outside but other than that it looks pretty much identical now.

 

Whilst on the subject of SATC I may as well use this opportunity to say that I did see some of the first film on a plane a few years ago. I say some as I fell asleep for most of it! The sequel ‘SATC 2’ gave me great pleasure too and thats without even seeing any of it! Mark Kermode’s rant about this film on the excellent ‘Kermode & Mayo’s Film Review’ show on BBC Radio 5 Live was fantastic radio. Watch it here.

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Dining Out: I Ate Sheep Brain Curry & Ewe Better Believe It!!

Posted on September 4, 2012 by tokyofox

I was having a quick peruse of the excellent RocketNews24 website last week when I saw an article about a Pakistani restaurant in Ikebukuro which serves sheep brain curry and thought I’d go along and see and experience it myself. Maruhaba is a five minute walk from the west exit of JR Ikebukuro station although it took my girlfriend and I about an hour to find it as I had the wrong address and couldn’t find it on google maps. After a quick call to the place it was known that the actual address was 2-63-6 Ikebukuro. With a mannekin pis statue outside as well as the usual elephant statues we entered expecting a place full of Pakistani men but the place was completely deserted with only one other couple coming in a bit later.

 

According to the aforementioned website the majority of Pakistani people are Muslim and so don’t eat pork but when it comes to sheep they eat all of it including the heart, brain and even the genitals! Maybe that will be next as I’ve seen Bear Grylls sample such delicacies in ‘Man Vs Wild‘ (‘Born Survivor‘ in Britain) many times over the years and its done him no harm!

 

Although the usual curry dishes were on the menu I decided to splash out on the brain masala as that was the reason for locating this restaurant and you can never have enough brain can you?!! Maruhaba claims to be the only restaurant in Japan to serve the dish though I can’t be sure of the authenticity of that statement.

I pushed the boat out a bit and also had some keema (minced beef) nan with the obligatory lassi drink which was possibly the best one I’ve ever had. The curry taste was way better than I expected as I usually play it fairly safe in these places. It had a soft spongy taste with tofu-like texture and as expected I didn’t even feel like I was eating brain. Its certainly not a spicy dish and is actually quite mild which suits me fine. I’m sure only bits of the dish are actually the sheeps brain but who knows?!

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