Interview 110706RK

Ryoichi Kimizuka has always been the creative power behind the mega-hit "Odoru Daisosasen" ("Bayside Shakedown") series, the crime/action/detective story and one of the biggest box office generators in Japanese movie industry. The series marked the huge tidal shift in Japanese movie industry, by creating new win-win relationships between TV and movies, and thus reviving the whole Hoga (Japanese movies) world. While by then movies were considered a dying breed quickly eaten up by TV, "Bayside Shakedown" proved that the TV drama fans would gladly pay for the theater tickets to watch the movie based on the same story, and actually can help each other. Now, more than ever, TV is a center pillar in Japanese movie industry, both financially and human-resources-wise, and Kimizuka is one of the best example of this phenomenon.

Kimizuka started to work in TV industry after graduating from Nihon University Art Department, and made Kinichi Hagiwara as his mentor, the legendary comedian and comedy-creator. After several successful comedy-variety shows and TV dramas, he produced and wrote the "Odoru Daisosasen" TV drama in 1996. The drama was made into a feature-length movie in 1998, and since then, has become the most successful series both on TV and in the theaters. At its 4th movie "Suspect Muroi Shinji", released in 2005 in Japan, Kimizuka finally had a chance to direct the movie himself, and made it a big hit again, recording 3.83 billion yen gross and ranked 5th among Hoga box office at the year end ranking.

Kimizuka, along with the series' producer Chihiro Kameyama, visited AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles last November and answered reporters' questions.

A modern-day samurai in classical settings

"Suspect" is a bit dark, more serious court drama, different from other "Odoru" series which are known as big comedy-action entertainment. What were the difficulties and what did you do to make it dramatic?

"The hero Muroi is rather an old-fasioned samurai than a modern guy. He does not speak much, so I tried to express his solitude and emotions by visuals, such as rain and wind, rather than by monologues. Those effects were all man-made. I wanted to make the heavy rain that splashes up to your knees, so the staff used 300 metric tons of water, 50% more than the regular rain in the movies. We hired away all the rain making specialists in Japan, so none of the other dramas or movies could shoot rainy scenes on that day. As for the wind, we used 3 airplane propellers.

We also used some items to remind the viewers of a classical period-samurai drama, such as fires in oil drums, resembling the torch fires at a castle scene, and vertical "traffic safety" flags, looking like the flag-signs that samurais carry.

Other 'Odoru' series are made with cool and fashionable taste, but this one is different on purpose. We selected Shinjuku, rather un-fashionable area in Tokyo, as our location, and tried to infuse the old-fashioned classic Japanese movie taste. We used stronger light/shadow contrast and the real films, rather than digital recording."

50 resumes, complete with all the details

The fun parts of "Odoru" series are the various unique characters and the "police inside story" that are revealed through the entaglement of these different characters. What did you do to make it possible?

"I started by writing up the whole resume of each character, with all the details such as where she was born, she was involved in such an incident while in junior high, she lost her parents at such and such age, or she is divorced or so on, even though those are not directly related to the story. By doing so, I can easily figure out what she would think in a particular situation, and the actor/actress also can go back there when he/she is not sure how to act.

'Odoru' series started with 11-episode TV drama, so there are huge number of characters. I also wanted to make it as realistic as possible, so if a petty theft happens in the story, a detective in charge comes from a different department, rather than the hero in the murder dept. solves all problems himself. So I ended up writing resumes for 50 characters.

The story framework is influenced by American TV dramas such as 'ER' and 'NYPD Blue', people story surrounding the crime, rather than the crime solving itself. It is not a crime drama, but it is a police organization drama. The main focus is the people's confusing movements caused by the crime."

Character building and lots of drinking

The complex nature of the character building must require a lot of research about the police, crime and the surrounding organizations. How much cooperations can you get from the Japanese Police organizations?

"The police people have confidentiality limitations and cannot talk about their actual experience about the crime or the organization. The spirit of the movie is basically to cheer up the police people, but there are also some cynical criticism elements, so the police department officially does not cooperate with the film. So I had to find a way around it.

I often went out drinking with retired police executives and heard some real world episodes indirectly from them, promising the sources would be kept confidential. I really had to drink a lot. I used some of them in a plot of 'Suspect', such as how they keep an eye on a suspect for a long time.

Another way to do the research is to talk to the different departments within the TV studio. Some of the news show reporters knew a lot about police organizations, or about the law. A variety show staff knew a bad lawyer, about whom he reported in the past. His information was used for the lawyer characters in 'Suspect'. The relationships with the TV made it very easy.

In various ways, Japanese government is not cooperative to the movie industry. TV is the main supporter of the Japanese movies."

Comedy taste, but not an obvious comedy

In "Suspect", some black-humor eccentric characters such as lawyer Haijima were impressive, as well as in other "Bayside Shakedown" series. Is it the influence from your mentor, the great comedian Kinichi Hagiwara? What is your purpose to have those black-humor characters in your plots?

"If humor is one of the 'Odoru' series charms, Mr. Hagiwara's influence on me is definitely huge. But this movie is not a comedy. I don't like to make people laugh by the character doing obviously funny things. I like the subtle laugh, when the character seriously says or does certain things, coming out from his own life experience or his policy, but the viewers see them as eccentric and think that there are some people like that in the real world. Geeky and childish adults such as lawyer Haijima are plenty in current Japan, and they have started to give impact on Japan's economy or politics."

TV and movie world

Why did you want to become a screenwriter, and a movie director?

"I liked the movies from the beginning when I was a student. But when I graduated, it was in the 80's and not many Japanese movies were made, and those that were made were too old-fashioned. I did not want to go to such a declining industry, so I went to the TV dramas. I wrote the dramas for some 10 years, then I wanted to control everything by myself. I also want to be a rookie in the new area, leaving the comfortable TV screenwriting world, so I started directing the movie. 'Suspect' is my second film."

"Suspect Muroi Shinji" DVD is scheduled to be released in Japan on April 19, 2006.