Interview 061406TY

Not "Back-door entry" anymore!

While his former two films are typical SFX movies with heavy visual effects, "Always" is very different, a nostalgic human story staged in 1958 Tokyo, when people's life was simple, poor but full of optimism. How did the project started, and what was his motivation?

"Executive Producer Shuji Abe, with whom I made the past two films, insisted on doing something about Showa era, and picked up this manga (comic) as his theme. He said to me, 'nobody can revive the 50's scenery but you.' Now, this was already my third movie, and so I had a desire to be considered a proper movie director. But I am handicapped with non-traditional CG-trained career, and tend to be considered as a 'back-door entry' (laughs). So I felt insulted when Mr. Abe said this, but I owe him a lot for letting me make the stuff I liked with the previous two movies, so I had to do it (laughs). This is a different type of adult-oriented CG, the one that I have to deceive viewers more perfectly, so I wanted to challenge it as well.

At the time, I was feeling frustrated about Hollywood-style CG. Such an overly flashy CG is my origin and I love it, but I felt viewers were already tired of it. CG has been playing the main role in the film, but I think it is time for CG to grow mature and become a nice by-player. For example, "King Kong" VFX is technically amazing, so the VFX -half of my brain is totally stunned, but the other half thinks 'what's the point of doing it now?' The main part ought to be the story and the characters."

Smell of Showa and Ozu influence in Koyuki casting

And thanks to his effort, the story and the characters in this film were highly praised in Japan. How did he construct the script and what was the policy in casting?

"I liked the original comic 'Sunset on Third Street', but the pictures were unique and the story was the huge collection of short stories, so at first it did not inspire me with the image of a movie. There are 51 volumes and I read the whole thing twice, and then picked up the good episodes. There are several characters that show up repeatedly, and I picked Chagawa as the main. In the story, nobody else grows up (laughs), but Chagawa starts off as an over-proud mean guy and turns nicer eventually, so I thought he was a good fit for a movie. 'Suzuki Auto' was picked an opposite position to Chagawa, an established family vs. unstable Chagawa.

I consciously selected actors and actresses with the smell of Showa. People who who was popular in Showa-era hit movies, such as Hiroko Yakushimaru (Kadokawa movie series such as "Sailor Suit and Machine Gun"), Hidetaka Yoshioka (Yoji Yamada's "Tora-san" series) and Tomokazu Miura (literature-based movies in the 70's such as "Izu no Odoriko", often partnering with Momoe Yamaguchi, legendary pop icon of the era and his wife).

Among them, Koyuki definitely looks different. I was aiming at the position of Setsuko Hara in Anjiro Ozu movies, a fairy-like un-Japanese-looking lady who did not exist in the real life in that era. Koyuki's role Hiromi is a stranger in the Third Street utopia, and she attracts attention of Third Street people just by walking down the street. Such a un-Showa-like actress can explain her different stance well. But too much fashion-model-like actress is too much. I had an opportunity to visit the filming location of "The Last Samurai" and I was impressed that Koyuki completely became a Meiji-era woman, so I thought Showa would be a piece of cake for her."

NTV and Japan Academy Awards - conspiracy theory denied

Nippon Television (NTV) is one of the investors in the film, and they broadcast Japan Academy Awards Presentation every year. Did he feel it was almost certain that he would win the Japan Academy from the get go? What were his relationships with NTV during the planning and production period?

"NTV people told us beforehand, 'we would love to make you win the awards, if we ever could,' but I understand that NTV cannot be involved in the selection process at all, because otherwise films with other TV sponsors would not participate. Japan Academy is decided by members' votes, but in the past, there was a room for the top studios executives to do a little bit of adjustments, so there would not be too much concentration to a single movie or a single studio. This year, however, they have shifted the weight heavily to the general votes, so ironically, the awards were concentrated. It is true that both 'Shall We Dance' and 'The Twilight Samurai' were both NTV-backed, but another sweep example 'GO' was not. I know that many people would suspect NTV's influence, but that is not the case.

On the day of Japan Academy, we were confident about the best supporting actor/actress categories (Shinichi Tsutsumi and Hiroko Yakushimaru) because they already had won many other awards, but the main actor was a surprise. Koyuki was the only one that did not win the 'best' award, but it was no shame at all. The opponent in the actress category was legendary Sayuri Yoshinaga, and she showed up at the ceremony, so we were sure she would win.

I have made films mostly with Fuji TV in the past, but this time, NTV's producer Seiji Okuda called me on the phone, in tears after reading the script, and said he was eager to invest into this movie. I heard it was very hard to get the approval from the management, because it was a risky project; there was no place we could use as a shooting location within Japan, the director is too young to know this era, the big budget was necessary for CG and large scale sets, and in contradiction, the target audience were the baby boomers, who generally dislike the CG. I really appreciate their support by investing several hundred million yen to such an ambitious movie. The total production budget of this movie ended up 1.4 billion yen."

VFX for VFX-hating crowd, by railroad maniac producers

Yes, Japan has changed so much in the past 50 years and in nowhere we can find 1950's streets anymore. So how did he realize the realistic sceneries, with so many limitations?

"Houses were sets in Toho's largest studio. The main street was a small airport in Tatebayashi. The street car was CG, but we also used an actual car in a museum in Arakawa, although it was a still display and did not move. In general, we used a lot of miniatures, shoot them and use them as samples for making CG.

The steam locomotive was a big deal (laughs). Both producers Mr. Abe and Mr. Okuda were railroad maniacs, and firmly insisted that we use the model C62, because the rural graduates who got jobs in Tokyo came in groups actually on C62 during this era. They would hold shoulders and say they wouldn't make the movie without C62, and I thought they were helpless maniacs (laughs). We found a moving exhibit in a museum in Kyoto, and we built the train station set in the museum so we could shoot the scene with people get on and off the train. The actual moving C62 was so dynamic that I understood the maniacs' pickiness a little bit (laughs). The bridge scene was a miniature. We found another train maniac who owns a well made miniature and borrowed it. We had to put a little stain to make it look old, and we were planning to clean it up before we return to him, but he liked the old-looking train and was very happy to accept it as is. Now he is the proud owner of the 'Always'-model C62, and is so delighted that his own train plays a memorable scene in the movie."

With such an effort by Yamazaki, the movie attracted nostalgia-seeking baby boomers, unusual movie goers compared to younger generation. Did you mean it?

"Yes, we consciously targeted boomers, and it gave me a big pressure not to make SF-like typical CG. I had to make them say 'this one is different.' The producers were confident from the beginning that boomers have a big influence once they start to move, while I was not so sure because they usually don't watch movies so often.

The result was A-OK. First, boomers watch it, and then recommend it to younger people in the office or at home."

Juzo Itami, US crowd and VFX period drama?

Looking back the past, what was it like to work with late Juzo Itami?

"Director Itami was always curious to try something new. Back then, we did not have much opportunity to experiment our CG techniques, so it was exciting to respond to Director Itami's requests, in such movies as "A Taxing Woman" and "The Last Dance (Daibyonin)". In a way, he contributed a lot to the development of VFX in Japanese movies."

Looking into the future, what would you like to do next?

"I love SFX, but this time it really hit me how much people hate SFX, so I am hesitating a little bit (laughs). I got to know the fun of reviving the past, so maybe I want to do the period drama, such as Sengoku era (14th century samurai battle era)."

At the U.S. premiere of "Always", some people are concerned that Americans may not enjoy the film as much, because the story is based on Japanese people's nostalgia to the post-war era icons such as half-built Tokyo Tower. What would you say about this?

"Well, I shared that concern a bit before, but it was shown in a film festival in Italy and Italians liked it. So I am not worried too much. I believe there are lots of universal elements that are enjoyable to people from different cultures. You never know, though (laughs)."