Tokyo International Film FestivalIn a series of conversations and master classes at TIFF Lounge, a conversation took place between Yamada Yohjidirector of the Centerpiece festival “Tokyo Taxi”, and Lee Sang Ilwinner of this year's Kurosawa Akira Prize for “That's it“
Yamada, 94, whose extensive filmography includes the iconic 48-episode Tora-san series that ran from 1969 to 1995, and Lee, 51, whose Kokuho has been a record-breaking hit since its release in June this year, earning more than $100 million, expressed admiration for each other's work. Lee called Yamada a “national treasure” (English translation of “Kokuho”), while Yamada said that placing his modestly budgeted “Tokyo Taxi” next to Lee's lavishly produced drama “Kabuki” “makes me feel uncomfortable” and that he was there to “watch and learn.”
Noting that Kokuho is “the story of two men” who become female lead singers, or onnagata, in Kabuki, Yamada said Lee's film is “exceptionally good precisely because it differs from typical male friendship films” by keeping the focus on the two main characters and their suffering for their art, as well as their intense rivalry as artists. “Usually in such films the woman always intervenes between [the two men] So you have a simple relationship dynamic,” Yamada said. “This movie is different… I was amazed that you were able to express something so complex so well.”
Yamada compared the film to the 1984 Mozart biopic Amadeus, which “had jealousy in it.” [between the two protagonists]sabotaging each other and deceiving each other.” In “Kokuho,” he added, “One would expect something like this to unfold, but the drama is centered on “art.” Above all, they dedicate themselves to their art.” He also expressed surprise at how both leads fully inhabited their female stage roles. “How did they do it?” he asked.
Lee responded that stars Ryo Yoshizawa and Ryusei Yokohama spent a year and a half in preparation, learning kabuki from scratch. “To be honest, for the first few months, I would go watch them every now and then, and it would give me a headache,” Lee said. “I wonder if they'll ever get it… But this rehearsal process, where they pushed each other to improve, directly shaped the relationship between their characters.”
The two directors also discussed veteran dancer and actor Tanaka Mina, who appears as the elderly Kabuki-onnagata in “Kokuho” and as the sword-wielding adversary samurai hero in Yamada's Oscar-nominated 2002 hit “The Twilight Samurai.”
“He had a good face and a good voice,” Yamada said. “But his playing… He was just terrible, really terrible. We rehearsed everything, every thing. And it just didn't work. So we had to work it out [the dialogue]word by word.”
Noting that Tanaka had become an in-demand actor following the film's success, Yamada said to laughter from the audience, “I watch it sometimes and he hasn't improved at all.”
Lee countered that Tanaka had the dancer's looks to match the role: “Just being there is enough for him, you know? It's presence and the way his body moves. He has this unique way of moving his body, and when it's combined with his voice, it creates this magical presence.”
The conversation turned to Tokyo Taxi, Yamada's remake of the 2022 French-Belgian drama Driving Madeleine. Frequent Yamada collaborator Baisho Chieko plays an elderly woman who asks her taxi driver (former pop star Kimura Takuya) to take her to the memorable sites of her life in Tokyo before arriving at the nursing home in Yokohama where she intends to spend her remaining days.
Yamada noted that Kimura, who starred in the 2006 samurai drama Love and Honor, was as serious as a taxi driver adding natto (fermented soybeans) to his breakfast rice as the samurai in the previous film. “He was like, ‘I have to do this properly, seriously. That's who I am,” Yamada said. “And even when his own scene is over, he always stays on set until the end… Big stars usually show up late or don't care. [about staying to the end]but he never does.”
Lee said that when he visited Yamada's set, the director “was always close to the camera, always watching the actors from the closest position.” “I tried it myself, half jokingly,” he added. “I learned how important it is: having a director around is incredibly important. That lesson has stayed with me ever since.” He noted that young directors tend to look at a monitor located some distance from the camera. “I can’t accept this,” he said. “If I were an actor, I would hate it.”
During the Q&A, the directors were asked what they thought of the enormous global popularity of Japanese animation compared to the relatively low international exposure of Japanese live-action films.
Yamada admitted that the profits of Japanese anime are “huge” while the profits of Japanese films are “virtually negligible in comparison.” “This is incredibly frustrating and sad for us Japanese artists,” he said. “Seventy years ago, when I started going to cinemas, Japanese films were incredibly vibrant and the film scene was rich… We have to do something. It's not just up to us; the Japanese government also needs to seriously pay attention to this. This is a national problem. Why is Korean cinema showing such incredible strength? Because Korea is sincerely committed to making films, truly responding to cinema. That's why I hope Japan will support cinema as a national policy. I hope such an initiative may appear from Tokyo.”
