Tokyo is home from home for every Francophile aesthete in the world. There are generally agreed standards of beauty. In New York cafes, next to the poster detailing the Heimlich Manouver, you get a sign saying 'Call this number to see how I did in my last hygiene inspection'. In Tokyo the Design Police have posted notices saying 'Check the label under the Eames chair. I'm joking, but only just.
Good taste is statutory here.
I see 'Baise Moi' and 'Downtown 81' in Shibuya's Cinema Rise , a classic piece of 80s pomo architecture featuring a sculpted metal curtain flipped faux-casually over a concrete dome. Both films make the West look dirty and decadent. The New York film works here in Japan because it's about people from the filthy streets of early 80s Manhattan escaping brutal conditions through art. Baise Moi', on the other hand, looks atrociously savage. The Paris we see in this film is as far from the France Japan loves, the France of Boris Vian, Gainsbourg and Juliette Greco , as gangsta rap is from avant pop.