Movies about authors inevitably run into the problem that the act of writing is a bore to watch. Even in the best-case scenario, all you’re likely to see is words appearing on a page. More often, you’ll be stuck observing someone spend hours agonizing over a single paragraph or procrastinating while they wait for inspiration to strike.
The titular establishment in Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s “The Hotel of My Dream” is the go-to place for such behavior. First opened in 1954, the Hilltop Hotel in Tokyo was a landmark for postwar wordsmiths, frequented by the likes of Yukio Mishima and Yasunari Kawabata. Editors reportedly used to mill around in the lobby while they waited for writers in the rooms upstairs to finish their manuscripts.
That’s the vibe Kayoko Nakashima (the single-named Non) is looking for when she checks in for a night in 1984, bringing a fountain pen, a wad of paper and some unfulfilled literary ambitions. Her fledgling career has stalled since she won a prize for new writers several years earlier — something she blames on a scathing review by bestselling novelist Munenori Higashijujo (Kenichi Takito).
