- Welcome to POV.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of PBS Wisconsin's Director's Cut.
Pedal on, keep earning, survive.
That was the mantra for a young college graduate
who couldn't find work
and resorted to becoming an Uber Eats driver
to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tonight's film follows Taku Aoyagi
as he maneuvers his bike around the streets
of his deserted hometown,
delivering food in Tokyo Uber Blues.
Trying to find your place in the world fresh out of college
is difficult for many.
It can be more difficult
if you've just graduated from an expensive film school,
have loads of student debt,
and a grandmother with mounting medical bills.
Dealing with all these issues
while trying not to get a deadly disease
was stressful for Aoyagi, but he is not the type
to sit around waiting for things to happen.
After getting a tip about a job opening with Uber Eats,
he hopped on his bike
and started pedaling his way through uncertainty.
As it turns out, riding a bike through the night in Tokyo
is a good way to reflect and contemplate life.
Taku Aoyagi recognized that all of these feelings
and the stress he was dealing with
should be recorded and captured.
He racked up college debt in film school,
so why not do what he was taught to do?
He became his own leading man
and fearlessly confronted uncharted territory
in this new chapter of his life
by using cell phone cameras and Go-Pros.
He filmed his adventures
delivering food to quarantined people,
as well as his lonely rides
through the deserted night streets of Tokyo,
which provided a cinematic backdrop.
Add in some funky, upbeat music
and you've got yourself a documentary.
It's expected of an indie filmmaker to be resourceful
and find ways to make a film look good
and squeeze production value out of nothing,
and Aoyagi certainly did that.
But this young director still needed his leading man
to interest viewers and carry the film,
so he became an open book
to let viewers in to what he was feeling:
moments of doubt, loneliness, and melancholy,
allowing people to see his mistakes
and let his inexperience about life show.
The result?
This young artist made his first award-winning film.
In a recent interview, Aoyagi was asked
what his favorite film of all time was.
His answer was Midnight Cowboy.
He said he loves the movie
because it has an open heart and affirms hope as well as despair.
Sounds familiar.
Tokyo Uber Blues starts now on PBS Wisconsin,
your home for independent film.