#37 「クリストファー・ノーランめっちゃやることあっただろうな」

109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku as a Stomach-Problem Strategy

Asai Ryo has a chronic 'stomach problem' that makes sitting through a three-hour film in standard seating feel like an odyssey in itself. His solution has become 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku. Tickets run ¥4,500–¥6,000, but the roomy seats let him shift positions freely, and the all-you-can-eat popcorn and drinks are supplemented by a snack similar to Shimi Choco Corn, handed out in free batches of seven — finish one and the next seven arrive. He admits he queued at the counter multiple times before the film even started. A lounge opens an hour before showtime, handy for squeezing in work.

For Nolan's Odyssey, he planned to attend with two friends and set his alarm for midnight, three days before release, to snag the luxury seats — only to find them already sold out. He hadn't known that members get earlier access and called himself naïve for underestimating demand.

The 'Rough Seas' Crisis Right Before the Screening

On the day, yogurt eaten that morning sent its lactobacillus 'fully alive and delivered,' triggering stomach pain on the way to the cinema. The regular toilets were packed with weekend crowds and completely out of the question. With time running out, he quickly confirmed with the staff member at the entrance gate that ticketholders sharing a booking could enter separately on their QR codes, slipped inside to use the toilet near the screen, and then rejoined his two friends as if nothing had happened. He texted them: 'I confirmed that shared-booking ticketholders can enter separately, so I went ahead.' He spent the entire three-hour runtime on edge — 'it's still arriving' — but said the power of the film eventually made him forget the anxiety. After the credits he exhaled: 'Safe return. Truly a long journey.'

'A Hundred Million Things to Confirm' — The Scale of Nolan's Production

The first thing he brought up after the film was the sheer scale of the production. End credits rolled past an Italy Unit, an Iceland Unit, a Morocco Unit, and more — a succession of worldwide teams that nearly knocked him over. 'The number of things that must have needed confirming was unimaginable,' he said with genuine awe. The making-of book described a process of repeatedly hiking up and back down mountains — a commitment to doing everything by hand. Comparing himself — someone who finds organizing a dinner for a dozen friends genuinely difficult — he asked, 'How many brilliant minds capable of sharing that vision with crews all over the world does it even take?'

His Own Odyssey — Roman Toilet Mythology

In the film, Greek gods intervene at every turn in Odysseus's journey. Curious how that structure would map onto his own cinema adventure, Asai looked up Roman mythology and found an almost perfect cast.

Crepitus, the god of intestinal chaos and flatulence, fills the role of Poseidon — the great obstructor. (Scholars suggest Crepitus was likely invented by later writers mocking Romans for finding a god in everything ridiculous.) Cloacina, goddess of Rome's great sewer, acts as the helper who opens the way to the toilet. Sterquilinus, a deity who converts excrement into agricultural fertilizer, was a genuinely important god in agrarian society and serves as the figure who closes the journey. Repeating 'it's completely different, of course,' Asai was the most surprised of all that the same dramatic arc had accidentally assembled itself.

'Kebab in the Left Hand, Brush in the Right' — We Are Aliens and a Manic Genius

After the title call, the conversation shifted to the anime film We Are Aliens (我々は宇宙人). Strongly recommended by a director friend, Asai went to see it and was stunned — and by chance, director Nakagawa appeared at the post-screening stage greeting. A graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts in his twenties, Nakagawa spent four to five years drawing roughly 60,000 illustrations for the film. For the final six months he ate kebabs with his left hand while drawing with his right. Asai called this obsessive drive 'a manic genius' and also praised the producer who backed the project over such a long stretch.

The conversation also touched on a video Asai had watched as preparation — an ancient Greek scholar dressed in a laurel wreath and chiton, visibly delighted while lecturing on the subject. 'Watching someone walk that joyfully down a path that's hard to choose for money or status,' he said, 'you feel the glow of work that can only exist when you truly love what you do.'