Yuji Yamada and Lee Sang Il-teok on government film funding and the live events industry in Japan
tokyo taxi Director Yamada Yuji told audiences at the Tokyo International Film Festival that he admires how the Korean government has supported the film industry there for decades, and called on the Japanese government to continue boosting financing domestically, especially for live-action films.
Speaking at the TIFF Lounge session alongside Japanese-Korean director “zainichi” Lee Sang-il, Yuji also opposed the use of the term “content,” saying he does not like the term. While the animation industry has boomed in the country, Yogi said the live action industry has lagged behind.
“Sixty years ago, when I joined the industry, Japanese films had a lot of momentum. They were very strong and we had many great directors and masterpieces during that period.
He added, “South Korea at that time didn’t really have films or films, so Japan was the most advanced film country at that time. Fast forward to today, Chinese and Korean films have made tremendous progress, and watching them from here makes me feel sad.” “We need to work together. This is a national problem, where we need the national government and public support. Do you know why Korea is so successful? Their government really supports films and the industry.”
Before he was sure he wanted to become a director, Yuji said he made some trips as an actor, but soon discovered that he was too shy to shine in the role.
“The actor is always aware of the director and the camera,” Yogi said. “I thought I could be an actor, then I realized there was always a tension with the camera, and that made an impression on me.”
Lee, which led to box office success CocohoHe also received the Akira Kurosawa Award at the festival this year.
It was selected as Japan’s nomination for the Academy Award for Best International Feature category, Cocoho It tells the story of the son of a yakuza gang leader, Keiko Tachibana, who becomes an apprentice to a Kabuki theater actor after Keiko’s father is murdered.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Shuichi Yoshida.
Lee said he is looking forward to his film’s upcoming Oscar campaign, where he will get a chance to see how well the film is received in the United States and abroad.
When Yuji asked if Lee had considered serializing the novel for a streaming platform instead, given the novel’s huge length, Lee said he weighed different possibilities.
“I wanted to see it on the big screen,” he told me. “If you want to be faithful to the original novel, it has to be in series form, but if you’re going to show it on the big screen, just jump in the timeline… There was a lot that we had to cut out, and it’s up to the audience to fill in what happens in between.”
Lee also admitted that he loves working with flashbacks in his films, especially since the production of the 2016 film anger.
Speaking about Kokuho’s nearly three-hour runtime, he admitted that the rough cut of Cocoho It was four and a half hours long.
“I usually go an hour later than originally planned, so I need a very skilled editor,” he told me.
On the topic of filming kabuki sequences, Lee and Yuji enthusiastically exchanged views on how to capture the performances.
Yuji shared that revered director Akira Kurosawa always said that the camera should never be on stage when filming a kabuki performance, or move to get close to the actors.
He recalled that Kurosawa once called NHK to tell them not to do it, and that Kurosawa was upset that such filming was allowed during a live show.
“Kurosawa believed that the camera could not get too close to the object. Instead, there had to be distance,” Yuji said.
Share that with me Cocohoa few of the kabuki scenes had around 500 extra pieces – a sprawling process.
He added that he hopes that through the film, viewers will see kabuki theater as an accessible form of public entertainment, and not as a distant or distant art.