Cinematic Photographs of Tokyo at Night by Masashi Wakui

The rain does the lighting. Wet asphalt in a narrow street turns every sign into a vertical streak of amber and red, while the people walking away from the camera stay black. On the right a red sign reads Big Echo.

The second frame is warmer and emptier — a storefront covered in paper lanterns, one figure walking away down a tiled alley, small bulbs strung through the branches overhead.

Masashi Wakui does not correct the colour. The lamps stay orange, the shadows stay blue, and the wet ground carries half the picture. More of the work is on Masashi Wakui on Flickr.