Yu Design includes the Toho Cinema in Roppongi Hills among their list of works. The Roppongi Hills development was completed in 2003 at a cost of $4 billion dollars and includes the Mori Tower, Roppongi Museum, and a variety of other venues. Though it revitalized the district, the development has been criticized for noise pollution, confusing orientation, and financial debt.
The cinema has seen massive sales since it was completed in April 2003. Visitors approach from a wide flight of stone steps and through a more traditional looking structure of wood and stone. At the front plaza, the visitor is confronted by a looming facade of glass. Tickets are purchased inside the lobby, and then the visitor proceeds around a second, interior facade of glass to escalators. This procession is very reminiscent of an airport terminal. Indeed, the seating arrangement of the theaters, with assigned seats and differently priced zones, is much like an airliner.
The procession to concessions and theaters is futuristic, with glowing floors, triangular passageways, and metal paneling, straight out of a sci-fi flick. Lighting for the theater is likewise futuristic. All this experience just getting to the seat sets up the viewer for a much greater cinema experience. The transition to an imaginary world is appropriate especially considering most films are American, and not dubbed into Japanese but only subtitled.
(Dick Thomas Johnson– flickr/creative commons license)
(Dick Thomas Johnson– flickr/creative commons license)
(Dick Thomas Johnson– flickr/creative commons license)
(Dick Thomas Johnson– flickr/creative commons license)
(Dick Thomas Johnson– flickr/creative commons license)
(mick62– flickr/creative commons license)
