Five Japanese Filmmakers Explain How Their Films Came to Be

Five young Japanese filmmakers sat on one stage in Tokyo and described where their films came from, and some of the origins were unusual. The session, "How We Make Films," took place at 14:30 on 28 October at Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, during the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, according to the festival's schedule.

The panel belongs to the Nippon Cinema Now section, which the festival has turned into a competitive category with two awards this year, as TIFF announced. Programming director Ichiyama Shozo moderated. He said the section usually focuses on newer directors in Japanese cinema.

Ueda Shinichiro, director of Earthlings in Love, said the film grew out of a 30-episode microdrama made for social media. That origin explains its vertical frame, the tall shape made for phone screens. He said its budget was about the same as a regular independent film, as Variety reported.

Saito Kisin, a cinematographer, is making his debut as a feature director with Kefi. He said the sponsor's original theme was maternal love and being a mother. The finished film follows three sisters after news of their father's death.

Natori Satoshi, who made Chihiro | Akemi, said a key location is a house in eastern Hokkaido. He used to be a hunter, and he drew on those years for the film. Before he turned to features, he worked as a director at an advertising company.

Natori also named Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia as a major influence. He said the film taught him that plot can come second to texture, colour and style. For a film-maker who came up through advertising, that is a sharp change of priorities.

The other two panellists were Matsumura Shingo, director of Between Us, and Yaza Takenoshin, director of Hinotama: Ball of Fire. The session's official title was "Financing Films with Original Ideas," which suits the thread running through the hour. Each director described a first idea that had to survive money, schedules and sponsors before it reached a screen.

What stands out is how far apart the starting points were. One film began as a phone series, another as a sponsor's brief, and another as a memory of hunting. Each one still had to be paid for and finished, which is the part most audiences never see.