From under the radar Naoko Ogigami chooses Toronto to shoot her new film "Toilet"!

by Chris MaGee

Sometimes when you spend your time scanning the internet horizon for news on upcoming Japanese films you miss something that happens right in your own backyard. Such is the case with filmmaker Naoko Ogigami (above) and her upcoming film "Toilet". Have you heard about it? I hadn't, not up until a few days ago when a member of our Facebook group chimed in about how the 37-year-old director of such films as "Barber Yoshino" and "Megane (Glasses)" was in Toronto last month filming "Toilet". Well, not a toilet, but the film, get it?

A quick search online uncovered a blog entry about "Toilet" from Elena Juatco, a Torontonian blogger who was lucky enough to be cast as an extra in a scene in this new film. Apparently "Toilet" tells the story of three siblings whose mother returns to Japan to live with them. Not many details, I know, but it's great to know that Ogigami is working on a new project and that she chose Toronto as a shooting location. Granted she isn't a stranger to North America, having studied filmmaking at the University of Southern California in 1994.

You'll be sure that we'll try and follow up with more details on this story... after I stop kicking myself for having missed meeting Ogigami in the flesh!