In Summer 2019, I arrived in Tokyo with a pipe dream and high expectations... The experience surpassed everything I could have predicted, and the people I was able to meet, spend time with, work with... the places I was able to visit as a local during the most surreal period of our lifetime... It all transformed me in ways I won’t soon understand.

I’m so grateful for Japan. For all that it is. For all it allowed me to see. For all it allowed me to be.

It felt fitting, that the last project I was able to complete while living there was a film for Tokyo Tourism. It allowed me to write one last love letter to the city we lived in, through the lens of one of its favorite sons: world champion judoka Mashu Baker.

Mashu was born and raised on the East Side, and learned judo at the iconic Kōdōkan Institute, before going on to win gold at the 2016 Olympics. He moved back to Tokyo to live and train, and after having to sit out Tokyo2020(+1), he hopes to one day recapture the gold. Humble and powerful, he is a global representative of judo, the world’s oldest martial art.

I was lucky to collaborate with old friends and new family on this one. To revisit some favorite spaces and uncover new ones. All in an effort to realize a swan song to the city. Because like Mashu, Tokyo has my heart, and it will always be home.

Writer/Director: Dan Buyanovsky

DP: Mikul Eriksson

AD: Sean Reyes

AC: Takao Baba

Camera Op: Seiya Uehera

Gaffer: Arata Ijichi

Sound: Yuya Shito

HMU: Sakurako Nishimura

Stylist: Tetsuya Imai

Stylist Assistant: Manami Tsuge

DITs: Korenobu Yamamoto, Kei Otani

On-Set Nurse: Estuko Suzuki