Film Noir affirms the notions that there is a dark side within us all,
and that the human mind has a capacity for evil that far outweighs
the threat from monsters under the bed. The Noir world is enveloped
by darkness. It’s streets exude a kind of underlying menace and
it’s characterization confirms this notion. In Noir,the bad guys are
bad, but the good guys aren’t much better. It is a world for the tough
and the streetwise and there is no room for emotion. The motivation
is greed and it does not matterwho gets stepped on in the process.
Film Noir seems to me to be a realists view of the world. In real life,
the good do not always triumph and the bad does not always get
caught. One of the most important aspects of Film Noir was the city.
The city suffocated the viewers and the characters with its
claustrophobic alleys and streets, and allowed them to get lost within
its labyrinth. It offered the main characters countless bars and
nightclubs where they could get intoxicated, do their dirty business
or find a beautiful woman. The city was also home to many of the
vital locations in Film Noir such as on board trains, busses or on train
stations. New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles was
always the base from where Film Noir movies was filmed as they
were the cities that exemplified all of the above. Tokyo however was
never been thought of as a Noir city, mainly because it was on a
different continent with different people and with a completely
different environment. Despite this, Tokyo has grown to become
a city where you can find all of the previous mentioned criteria
and more.