And Death Shall Have No Dominion

From its fashion to its bustling streets, Japan is an incredible melting-pot of creativity - part of the reason we chose to showcase the region in the current issue of shots.

And it seems we're not the only ones to take inspiration from the Land of the Rising Sun. On a recent shoot in Tokyo, The Sweetshop director Noah Conopask learned about doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo, the group behind a deadly sarin nerve gas in Tokyo’s subway system 20 years ago.  "It made me think of Dylan Thomas' poems about life and death," explains Conopask. "It was something I wanted to bring to life cinematically. I had a vision of a few of the cult members walking around Tokyo. Staking out the attack, the way thieves would a bank heist."

The resulting film overlays haunting visuals with a fragment from the Welsh poet's famous 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion' poem, translated into Japanese, and is well worth a watch.