REWIND FEATURE: Tokyo International Film Festival 2016
TIFF 2016 - Part Five: Stage Greetings and Q&As
During a film festival, it is not only about screening after screening of various movies throughout the week, but it is also a time for the filmmakers and stars to present the films in person. As mentioned prior, I had attended the Q&A with the five jury members of the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival on opening day, attended a talk show event featuring animation directors Mamoru Hosoda and Dice Tsutsumi, and the talk show event with director Kiyoshi Kurosawa who was one of the recipients of the “Samurai Award” this year. In addition to those, I was able to attend Q&A events for 10 more films during the festival. All events and films were Japanese and English friendly - with all films including Japanese and English subtitles when necessary, and all Q&As and interviews were fully interpreted in Japanese and English when necessary as well. If during a Q&A an audience member asked a Japanese question the interpreter would translate to English, etc. Being a press journalist, I always sat at the very front, usually a few feet away from the stars - and the pictures show the proximity. With this advantage journalists and photographers get the best images and being a journalist, and also the moderator would often choose a journalist for a question - and I was able to do so quite often! I didn’t take the lazy route and whenever I had a question, I would ask in both English and Japanese languages myself, saving the interpreter from a bit of work.
“Lipstick Under My Burkha”
Q&A featuring Alankrita Shrivastava (director/screenwriter), Aahana Kumra (actress), Plabita Borthakur (actress)
The winner of a prize at the festival and also at the Mumbai Film Festival the same week, this is one film that I regret not being able to see due to scheduling. An Indian comedy by a female director/screenwriter that looks at sexuality in comedic form? Very different from the average Bollywood film. An audience member and the moderator commented that the film’s theme were very similar to that of Japanese films from 40 years ago with female driven films and open toward sexuality unseen in films made prior. But how long will it take for India to have progressive attitudes the film presents? Director Shrivastava noted that in larger cities they are more progressive and westernized but with rural areas, feminist attitudes and basic rights are non-existent and therein lies the issue of the film having a wide distribution in the country. The film is currently running the festival circuit but is scheduled for release in India for 2017.
“I America”
Q&A featuring Ivan Andrew Payawa (director/screenwriter/executive producer), Bela Padila (actress), Thou Reyes (actor)
“I America” was a last minute addition to the festival’s lineup and as I had stated, it was a wonderful film that was filled with laughs and hard drama. While in the film the actress Bela Padila and actor Thou Reyes mostly played their parts in Tagalog with broken English, they spoke English fluently along with the director during the Q&A. They talked about the research done for the parts, how Padila who is half British is fortunate enough to have a father but had to imagine a life without one for the role, and Reyes saying how the audience probably expected him to look like Beyonce (like in the film) but he is actually more like Jay-Z in real life. I was fortunate to ask a question in the Q&A, and I asked about how much the film had improvised scenes - the dinner table scenes looked and felt very natural and the handheld camerawork added to that. Director Payawa said that it was basically scripted, but at times like the dinner scenes the actors did some adlibbing and finetuning to the characters, with the cast sometimes continuing even after he yelled “cut”! Padila and Reyes praised the director for the laid back style of direction, but still having control over the production.
“Tramps”
Q&A featuring Adam Leon (director), Grace Van Patten (actress), Jamund Washington (producer)
Director Adam Leon’s second feature is also a crime story/love story like his debut “Gimme the Loot”, and unlike a traditional boy and girl fall in love, the events of “Tramps” goes through many ups and downs with more ambiguity towards love rather than the straightforward sense. Being a low budget feature shot in New York, my question for them was what kind of difficulties they faced during the production of the film. Leon and producer Washington both gave examples such as shooting guerilla style with no permits in many scenes, the difficulties working with train scenes including train schedules, and time and money for everything. “Tramps” was recently acquired by Netflix for distribution.
“Hello Goodbye”
Q&A featuring Takeo Kikuchi (director)
Director Kikuchi did a solo Q&A for his second feature film following last year’s “Dear Deer” which was also screened at various festivals including Cannes. Before this Q&A started, the staff asked if anyone needed English translation. Since no one raised their hand (and I don’t need it), the entire session was in Japanese - and that actually was great for time since it wasn’t interrupted by the interpreter. Kikuchi talked about having to write and the biggest difficulty was the dialogue - as the main leads are all female and they are either very young high schoolers or elderly. And with him and his producer being middle aged men, it was not the most ideal or easiest characters to write for. He also discussed about the choice of music including a non-vocal theme song, how he likes films with female leads like “Mulholland Drive”, etc. and that he doesn’t want to make the same kinds of movies over and over and would even like to do a splatter horror film if possible. I was also able to ask a question to the director, and my question was if the actresses were able to help out or adlib some more natural dialogue to make the female dialogue more natural. He responded that the actors were very helpful in rehearsals and that he learned quite a lot of what was “hip” and what wasn’t.
“Rage”
Q&A featuring Lee Sang-il (director), Mirai Moriyama (actor)
One of the most talked about Japanese films of the year was “Rage” based on the novel by Shuichi Yoshida with an all star cast including Ken Watanabe, Kenichi Matsuyama, Go Ayano, and Aoi Miyazaki, featuring music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and directed by acclaimed director Lee Sang-il. The film has been out for over a month and a half in Japan theatrically and this was a post screening Q&A so spoilers on the killer’s reveal was there, which will not be repeated here. With three alternating stories taking place in different parts of Japan, the seemingly unconnected stories are seamlessly edited to make a full mystery story come full circle. They talked about the complicated scheduling of the filming, the long editing process, and how the rough cut of the film came to a staggering 4 hours which had to be trimmed down. Since the Q&A with the moderator’s questions and lengthy answers on the making of the film lasted so long that there was only time for one question from the audience. Guess whose raised hand got picked? You guessed it! My question to the director was something quite specific to our website Rewind DVDCompare: “You mentioned that the rough cut was 4 hours. Is there a possibility that the 4 hour cut will be an extra on Blu-ray or DVD, or possibly as deleted scenes? Or will there be an alternate version with the three stories presented separately?” Lee said “I will ask my producer.” But he said the separate story version would be most unlikely since the stories would not make much sense without the other parts to accompany the story. So no confirmation, but we will see!
“At the Terrace”
Stage Greeting featuring Kenji Yamauchi (director/writer), Kei Ishibashi (actress), Kami Hiraiwa (actress), Ryuta Furuya (actor), Kenji Iwatani (actor), Hiroaki Morooka (actor)
The stage performance of “At the Terrace” comes to the big screen, with the director/writer of the stage production behind the camera and the entire cast from the stage reprising their roles in the film version. The actors introduced themselves in a funny ways saying “___ will play my part in the Hollywood remake”, and the director eventually had to play the game so he said “I believe Robert Altman will direct the Hollywood version, though difficult since he already passed away.” When asking the audience “Who has seen the stage version before?” and quite a lot of people raised their hands - which the director said that does add a bit of pressure to them, hoping the audience would like the film.
“Canola”
Q&A featuring Chang (director), Yang Ik-joon (actor), Im Gun-joong (producer)
“Canola” was a wonderful film and one of the best I had seen at the festival. Director Chang was joined by producer Im as well as Yang who played the art teacher in the film - who is also a director in his own right. With the Q&A being in Korean and Japanese, people who needed English had to sit aside where the English interpreter whispered translations behind them. Obviously, not necessary for me so I sat out in front. While they talked a lot about the shooting on Jeju Island, the casting, and some spoilers of the characters I cannot say here, I had a question about the artwork. The character of Hye-ji artwork in the film is quite amazing, but I wondered if this was all done by a single artist or not, and how much the director had input on the artwork used in the film. Chang stated that he gave basic instructions to an artist he knew, but the artist did not draw and paint everything himself - it was done with a team of assistants that followed the director and art director’s instructions to create the many beautiful paintings used. “Canola” was already released theatrically in South Korea earlier this year but there still has not been a Blu-ray or DVD release yet. It has recently been announced that a Chinese remake was negotiated.
“Cyborg 009: Call of Justice Volume 1”
Stage Greeting featuring Keisuke Komoto (voice actor), Yui Makino (voice actress), Kenji Kamiyama (supervising director), Kodai Kakimoto (director), Kazuhiko Inoue (Joe from the 1979 version)
“Cyborg 009” has been rebooted as a 3-part film series based on the much beloved manga by Shotaro Ishinomori. It’s been more than 50 years since the manga debuted to Japanese readers, and has been adapted into multiple TV series’, radio shows, anime movies, and even live action. This anime reboot’s three episodes will be released theatrically in late November and early December, on three consecutive weekends. During the chatty stage greeting, the biggest surprise came from the appearance of Kazuhiko Inoue, the famed voice actor who played the main character Joe in the 1979 version of the series and makes a cameo voice appearance in the “Call of Justice” series.
“The Teacher”
Q&A featuring Jan Hřebejk (director)
Taking place in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1983, the film although labeled as a Czech production was mostly shot in the Slovak language. Director Hřebejk came solo to the Japanese premiere, and answered his questions in Czech. He talked about the comedy-drama film, the dark humor that represents Czech and Slovakian culture, and the reception of the film in the Czech Republic and Slovakia being quite different. It’s a shame I was not able to catch the screening of this and only was able to join the Q&A.
“Japan Cinema Splash: Out of Competition”
Stage Greeting
From “DDT: Dramatic Dream Team!!” - Tetsuaki Matsue (Director), Ken Ohka (Pro-Wrestler), Yumehito Imanari (Assistant Director)
From “The Brand New Legend of the Stardust Brothers” - Makoto Tezuka (Director)
From “I am a Pervert” - Hajime Anzai (Director), Jun Miura (Planning/Original Story/Screenplay), Kenta Maeno (Actor)
And interesting and crazy idea for three interestingly crazy films - The stage greeting was for three films with cast and crew from all three appearing on stage together for a fun and non-serious chat for about 30 minutes. The stage greeting started at 10:20PM. Then “DDT” was screened, followed by a Q&A for the film. “Stardust Brothers” was then screened and followed by a Q&A. Last the final film “Pervert” was screened, followed by a Q&A. This was an all-night event that lasted until about 5:00AM the next day. Unfortunately, I had to catch many more films the next day so I had to leave after the greeting… I’ve done three movies in a row before, and actually a few days prior I did watch 5 movies at the festival in a single day. But all night until 5:00PM? I was just not up for the challenge!
Overall, the Q&A sessions and talk show events were some of my favorite portions of the film festival. Like Blu-rays and DVDs, I love special features and if I have a choice of a great movie with zero extras vs a bad movie with many extras, I’ll choose the latter. It was like watching DVD extras live in front of me without a screen, and the interactivity by actually having my question being answered by the cast and crew? Doesn’t get any better than that. Or does it? The next part of the article - and the final part of the coverage of the Tokyo International Film Festival is a behind the scenes look at the festival.