The guide interviews director Naomi Kawase
As one of the most undeniable female authors in contemporary Japanese cinema, Naomi Kawase from Nara has attracted the attention of film festivals and film fans around the world for her unique documentary and narrative aesthetics, as well as her tireless video presentation of her hometown of Nara, and she has recently been selected as the official documentary director of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
As of 2019, the Hong Kong Asian Film Investment Association has been successfully held for 17 years, and the HAF event has attracted the participation of many top international film industry players, through business meetings, public proposal meetings and various networking activities, so that outstanding filmmakers from all over the world can explore cooperation opportunities and explore business opportunities with top industries.
"Guide Tube" interviewed director Kawase during this haf, and this time, as the executive producer of Pengfei's new work "See You Nara Again", she actively sought out partners for her new film.
Naomi Kawase
Naomi Kawase is a Japanese screenwriter, director, producer, and actress, born in Nara Prefecture in 1969, graduated from the Film Department of Osaka Photography College. In 1996, he directed his first 35 mm feature film "Suzaku of Cuteness", which won the Golden Camera Award at the 50th Cannes International Film Festival, and was the youngest winner of the award. In 2007, he won the Grand Jury Prize in the main competition section of the 60th Cannes Film Festival for his feature film "Funeral Forest". In 2011, he directed the romantic film "The Moon of The Vermilion", which was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, he directed the feature film "The Taste of Chengsha", which was shortlisted for a kind of attention unit at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. In 2010, she founded the Nara International Film Festival, which is dedicated to discovering and nurturing young directors and producing new films for the festival's project, NARAtive.
The text of the interview
Guide:
You shot a number of family documentaries early in your career as a director, how will it influence the later mature feature film creation?
Naomi Kawase :
In the process of creating a documentary, the camera is aimed at those real things, and it must have a sense of reality. Later, when creating feature films, I also pursued such a sense of reality. It can be said that because of this, reflecting the realism of things in drama films is a characteristic of his own work creation, and it is also the influence of the experience of making documentaries in the early days.
Seeing Heaven (1995) / The Sun Tilting to the West (1996)
Nara is the backdrop to many of your works, how do you see your hometown in relation to your film productions?
Nara is the place where I was born and grew up, and it is irreplaceable for myself, it cannot be described in words, and it can only be felt with my whole heart. For example, Nara's long history, such as every inch of light that shines on oneself. This feeling cannot be expressed in simple words, but can only be felt through every inch of skin, and this feeling is deeply buried in my heart. I also want to express this feeling through the form of a movie, so many of my works will choose Nara as the background.
The Nara International Film Festival (NIFF) was established in 2010 on a biennial basis to discover and nurture emerging film talent. Every two years, the Nara International Film Festival offers winners an opportunity to shoot feature films in Nara. The main purpose of the film production project is to introduce emerging international film talents to Japan, and at the same time to build a cultural bridge through the creative process. As the organizer, the Nara International Film Festival has produced six films.
Chinese director Zhao Ye's work "Hikari's Chestnut" originated at Kawase's Nara Film Festival and was produced by Kawase
You were very young when you finished your debut film "Suzaku of Cuteness", what was the biggest dilemma you encountered?
I was 27 when "Suzaku" was released, I was 26 when I was filmed, and I was only 25 when I prepared this movie. For myself, who was very young at that time, I was faced with a completely vague thing, where the end point could not be known, it was such a state of not knowing anything to start shooting, in a state where thinking was first, always preemptive. But at that time, what you feel is important will never yield to your surroundings and stick to your beliefs. Later, the number of people who supported him gradually increased, and the number of staff who participated in the production of the film together also increased, so that the film could finally be successfully filmed.
"Suzaku of Moe" (1997) Naomi Kawase
Despite this, at that time, I could not express my thoughts correctly, I could not explain my problems, the staff could not understand what the director was thinking, and there were also actors who resigned, etc., so it can be said that I was in a very painful environment for myself at that time. But as I said, you must stick to your beliefs, and it is because of this belief that this movie has come to be.
Kiki Shirin, the actor you worked with on "The Taste of The Sand", recently passed away, how did it feel to work with her?
This film has received a lot of attention from domestic and foreign audiences, and I feel very honored. The starring Kiki Shirin died not long ago, and he was also very sorry. I have the impression that she is a person who is very frank in the face of the world. As an actress, she should have acted according to the script, but her words can integrate herself into every scene, not so much according to the script as it is to say that Kiki Shirin himself acted out the script. She is the kind of actor who holds the script, but can integrate the sense of reality into the acting skills and know how to act.
Kiki Shirin starred in Naomi Kawase's 2015 directorial work "The Taste of Seongsa"
Yesterday, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Thief Family" also won the Asian Film Award for Best Picture in Hong Kong, in your observation, is Japanese film currently in good shape?
Although it is a Japanese film, people like Mr. Kore-eda and I are actually 50 years old or over, and the younger generation must promote the development of Japanese cinema as a whole. But the current situation is that this generation has very few opportunities to emerge on the world stage.
On March 17, Hirokazu Kore-eda's work "Thief Family" won the full list of best films at the 13th Asian Film Awards
It was 25 years ago when my generation started making movies, so it was imperative for more filmmakers in their early 20s to participate in film festivals around the world and make their mark.
I heard that director Ada Panahida is director yasujiro Ozu and a fan of the TV series "Ashin", what special perspective will she have in observing Japanese family stories?
Yes, Iranian female director Ada Panahada, who completed filming a year ago and is now releasing "The Tale of the Second Order", is a director who has great respect for Japanese films. Like director Yasujiro Ozu and the TV series "Ashin" that you mentioned, Panahada was a huge fan of these works when they were released in Iran at that time.
The Tale of the Second Order (2019) Ada Panahada
As a huge fan of Japanese movies, she has always said that she can make movies in Japan and feels that she can't do it. But she actually came to Nara, to the ancient city where I lived, and to explore the Japanese family through her own experience. The film depicts the Japanese family's emphasis on the concept of family, the inheritance of the father's business by the son, and the relationship between men and the family.
Iranian female director Ida Panahada
At the time of making the film, the director took the unfair and difficult living environment of the women in his country to be gender discrimination, and the unfair and difficult living environment that women were naturally compared with men after they went to society, and after comparing them with this film, decided to focus on the Japanese family through the camera, which must be endured to endure and sacrifice such a family form, thus the birth of this film.
Your Nara International Film Festival has been digging for outstanding young directors, and this time you also came to HAF Ventures with Pengfei's new film to introduce this new project to the audience.
This time the NARAtive project decided to cooperate with director Pengfei. Director Peng Fei's "Taste of Rice Blossoms" won the Most Popular Audience Award at the 5th Nara International Film Festival, and also received praise from a large number of Japanese audiences. I think he's very humorous, very charismatic, able to attract everyone's attention, and the director himself is very active in promoting this project.
"The Taste of Rice Blossoms" won the "Most Popular Award" at the 2018 Nara Film Festival
This time, I came to HAF Ventures with a new film directed by Pengfei, and we participated in 32 meetings in just 3 days. We also gained input from wanting to invest in our films and wanting to make them together. This project can closely link the future of Japan and China, and please pay attention to and look forward to the release of the film.
"See You Again Nara" tells the story of an elderly Chinese woman who took advantage of her granddaughter's study in Japan to go to Japan to find the widowed and adopted daughter of a Japanese orphan who had been missing for many years, and the retired Japanese police officers came to help, and the three began to search for transnational relatives. At present, we are also in the process of negotiating actors, Hiroshi Kobayashi, Kaoru Kobayashi, and Hayabusa Kunimura are all candidate actors, and Yingze, who Pengfei has cooperated with before, and photographer Liao Benrong will continue to participate.
At the 13th Asian Film Awards, Hiroshi Yusho, who has just won two awards for best actor and outstanding Asian filmmaker
What will be the arrangement of your personal creations later?
A new movie will be made starting this spring, and the film is expected to meet everyone in 2020. 2020 is the Olympic year, I have the honor of being selected as the director of the official film of the Tokyo Olympic Games, and I will work hard to complete the production in 2020 and release it to the world in 2021.
Naomi Kawase directed the official news of the Tokyo Olympics documentary
Japanese translation: Tao Xuewei
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