In the very early days of assembling the line-up of the Shinsedai Cinema Festival co-programmer Jasper Sharp knew he wanted to include the work of filmmaker Yoshihiro Ito. Hard to categorize Ito’s films mix elements of comedy, romance, suspense and even small bursts of horror into a surreal hybrid that would make David Lynch and Seijun Suzuki proud. Shinsedai co-programmer Chris MaGee recently had a chance to speak with Ito about his work. Here’s a transcript of their conversation (Thanks to Masayo Heron for helping with the translation):
CM: Can you tell me a bit about your background and how you got into
filmmaking? Isn’t it true that you make medical documentaries for a living?
YI: I have never studied cinema at any school. My major at the university was geophysics. But actually I didn’t attend my classes and was spending most of the times in making 8mm movies in my own amateur fashion. After graduation, I made two movies: “100th Monkey” and “The Laughing Stomach” and these two movies won awards at some independent movie competitions. I could have chosen the option to work apprenticeship in the Japanese commercial movie world but I thought it would not work for me, so I chose to work as an independent.
Currently I am working as a freelance film director just to make ends meets; I have been making many medical educational films for the medical industry. Especially for the last few years, I have made “short film” kind of movies. But again these are for medical education and training purposes and not for the entertainment of ordinary people.
CM: What inspires the stories in your films? When I watch them I almost get a feeling as if I’m witnessing a dream. Do you derive inspiration from
dreams at all?
YI: The inspiration for my stories varies but many stories based on my own absurd experiences. Or when I have a special feeling which is almost impossible to express in words, I will make it as a story (when I cannot find any words for the feeling, stories are the only way for me to express the feeling). But it is not that I try to realize my experience in a movie. For example, in my “Wife’s Knife”, the basic idea is “there is a man who is absolutely terrified of a completely un-scary woman”. If the idea comes to life in a fascinating way, then the rest will work out well, so this process (how to bring the inspiration to life) is very important to me.
About dreams – I am always interested in “the structure of dreams”. They are rarely linear in structure and the cause and effect are reversed; sometimes the settings, places and sometimes the subjects keep changing. Also in dreams we are sometimes absolutely confident about something without grounds to do so. Although it looks so random and absurd it often reveals something about yourself but you didn’t realize. Thus I am so fascinated in the uniqueness of dreams. I guess this is why my movies give audiences such a feeling.
But again I get more inspired by “the structure of dreams” than by my own dreams. So it is not that “I had a dream and I want to realize it!” Also I have never applied surrealistic automatism. It may look absurd but it is carefully examined and visualized. It is also true that it is not sometimes logically explainable and often based on my intuition. Even so I believe my intuition and make movies based on my belief that the story is correctly plotted and can be fun.
CM: Do you find that audiences try and analyse what your films are about? Maybe even reduce them to symbolism, etc? Do you welcome interpretations like this or is that something that frustrates you?
YI: I prefer making movies which will allow different interpretations among the audience. So I always appreciate how each audience interprets my films. As you can imagine, sometimes people try to reduce them to symbolism but I think it is their right as an audience.
The other day one audience member in his sixties told me “Wife’s Knife” represents the agony (like slow suffocation) within a marriage”. I didn’t intend to describe just the relationship of a married couple but I think how he felt is also correct and I was really pleased with his comment. Another said to me, “you are trying to explain the situation of where we, the Japanese, are now”. Or another said “this movie is about the power-balance between two countries”. They are all correct, I guess.
CM: Your films are so original that I find myself having a hard time explaining them to friends and people I know. I’ve resorted to mentioning filmmakers like David Lynch, Luis Bunuel, and even Seijun Suzuki. Are there any filmmakers that had a real impact on you, that may have inspired or informed the way you make films?
YI: It is a quite compliment that you say my films is so original. Those three directors you mentioned (especially David Lynch and Seijun Suzuki) have had a huge influence on me. There are also so many other directors and movies I respect: “The Conformist” (Bernardo Bertolluci), “Bad Blood” (Leos Carax) and “Stranger than Paradise” (Jim Jarmusch) are the three movies got me into the idea of making of my own movies. I was a high school student and enjoyed Hollywood movies up until then. These three movies opened my eyes and showed me what movies can do. I still admire these three directors.
As a writer I like movies which have original and speculative “tricks” (tricky plot). I don’t like experimental movies but like those that can be categorized as “entertainments”. A few that come to mind are: “Mulholland Drive”, “Groundhog Day”, “Rashomon”, “Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer”, “Being John Malkovich”, Alfred Hitchcock’s movies like “Vertigo” or David Fincher’s movies like “Fight Club” and more..
As a director I should not list any movies here, because so many directors and movies have had an influence on me – a list of those names won’t really tell anything. So here I will just add one more name: Shinji Somai (“Moving” etc.).
I can probably summarize this by saying that I want to write tricky, surreal stories like David Lynch’s and Seijun Suzuki’s, direct them like Shinji Somai and take amorous photographs like Bernardo Bertolluci
CM: What has the reaction to your work been in Japan as well as overseas? Do you find that there are different perceptions in and outside of Japan?
YI: People have different reactions to my works in Japan but I don’t know if people react differently in other countries. But subtitles surely affect on how audiences react, (whether they are well interpreted or not).
CM: You work a great deal with actress Natsumi Seto. What is it about her that keeps your creative partnership going, and do you find yourself creating projects with her specifically in mind?
YI: I always hope that I make movies in which actors (especially actresses) look very attractive. So I am pleased to have a chance to talk about them. Natsume Seto’s first appearance in my movie is in “Vortex & Others” (she used a different name in this movie: Rio Natsume). She had had no acting experience before then but she was very close to the image I had for the leading role. There were not many lines for the role I thought she could do it and made her an offer to her. In fact, she showed her strong presence in front of the camera and the movie gained more success than I expected. She is like a rough diamond which, with a little polish, becomes a real diamond.
I would of course want to work with her again if there are any roles perfectly suit her. But I don’t usually make a movie based with particular actors in mind but have stories first then find actors who can fill the roles the best.
CM: In “Vortex & Others” you bring together five films shot between 2001 and 2008. What do you have planned currently? Would you ever consider making a feature film?
YI: I have been writing a screenplay for a feature film in recent years. I am a slow writer and it has taken so long. When making short films, it is possible to start shooting without developing much of a scenario. But when it comes to a feature film I cannot use the same method with the limited time and the budget, so I want to prepare very well before I start shooting.
The scenario I am writing now is my original story, “Kotoko to Kotori” (English title will be “Kotoko”). The story is very complicated so it is hard to explain, but let me try. The main characters are Kotoko, a 17-year old girl, very poor and romantic, and her best friend Kotori. Kotori is visible only to Kotoko. Their relationship will change as the story progresses. Kotoko is believed to be pregnant as a virgin and gets involved in a power struggle with a cult.
Delusional, speculative and perverse with black humor – it is a very unique movie and unlike anything anyone has seen before. Please wait for it.
After this movie I want to make a movie titled “Zo o naderu (Stroke the Elephant)” with a blind man as the main character.
“Vortex & Others: 5 Short Films by Yoshihiro Ito” will be screening at the Shinsedai Cinema Festival Sunday, August 23rd at 12:00 PM with Ito in attendance for a post-screening Q&A session.
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