Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright's Buildings and Legacy in Japan

The feature-length documentary Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright's Buildings & Legacy in Japan explores a little-known historical episode with far-flung implications. In the early '20s, preeminent architect Frank Lloyd Wright -- fleeing from ignominy and ostracism in North America -- briefly resettled in Japan, where city planners commissioned him to design and erect the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, extant until 1976. Fascinatingly, Wright's relationships with Tokyo-based designers, engineers, and builders impacted these individuals so indelibly that his imparted lessons created a ripple effect, visible in generations of Japanese architecture. Magnificent Obsession recounts the original circumstances surrounding Wright's migration to the East and the episodes of his visit, then traces the architect's enduring legacy in Japan.