The 30th Tokyo International Film Festival has come and gone, sweeping the center of Tokyo into the yearly frenzy brought by good movies from all over the world.
This year’s Animation category featured a spotlight on Hara Keiichi, the director of films like Miss Hokusai, Summer Days with Coo, and Colorful. We were able to sit down with him along with some other international press to have a chat with him.
— How do you feel about being the subject of the Tokyo International Film Festival’s Special Focus on Japanese Animation?
Hara (H): Honestly, I was very happy. This is the first time I’ve ever had my work collected and shown as a collection, so it made me very happy, and I am currently having a lot of fun.
— This year is the 100th anniversary of the first Japanese anime. Do you have any thoughts on the future of anime?
H: I’m already 58, so I don’t have any strong feelings towards the future of the anime industry itself. I place more importance on my own future and the work I am going to make in the future. However, what we often talk about on the job is that we are lacking young staff members. Even though there are many works are being made, there is a distinct lack of young talent in the industry so there aren’t many creators being raised.
— What made you become an anime director?
H: I didn’t have a specific moment of impetus, but when I thought about what I wanted to do with my future, I didn’t want to become a regular businessman. I liked drawing, so I wanted a job where I could draw. After I graduated high school, I considered going to an arts university, but in the end, my grades weren’t high enough and I didn’t have any experience with realism so I realized I wouldn’t get in anywhere. At that time, I learned that there were animation schools. I liked animation and manga, so I decided to go there.
— Were there any particular shows that inspired or influenced you?
H: In terms of manga, I liked Fujiko F. Fujio (the creator of Doraemon), and I would eventually work on Doraemon myself. I loved their manga.
— Colorful was based on a book and Miss Hokusai on a manga. Are you often on the lookout for media to adapt?
H: Yes, I’m always looking for media. However, the stories I want to tell aren’t really stories that everyone, and by “everyone” I mean producers and sponsors, aren’t works that would make them happy. I feel that gap between us pretty strongly.
— When you make adaptations such as Colorful or Miss Hokusai, how much freedom do you prefer to have?
H: I’m happiest when they leave it all up to me. But when I’m making a film for profit, there’s always the stress of making it a product. In my experience, getting past that stress brings forth good ideas. But you think about that when you get to it. I’m not young and I also work freelance, so I don’t have any intention of making a movie exactly as I’m told.
— How do you feel about the international response?
H: It makes me very happy. The famous artist Katsushika Hokusai appears in it, and he’s a big artist that is very famous overseas as well. I was very aware of the fact that people overseas would also watch it because of the subject matter.
— Is there any difference in opinion between international and domestic fans?
H: Not in my experience. It’s usually the same.
— The heroine in Miss Hokusai is always chasing after her dream. Do you think the end is a happy ending?
H: I think it’s a bitter ending. As a woman in that time period, she ended up being born special, as Hokusai’s student and daughter who also paints. That meant that she was not allowed to have an average life. She was unable to have a family like a normal woman, she made a choice to live as a painter instead. No records exist of O-Ei after Hokusai’s death, so that ending was created from my guess of what sort of life she lived.
— When you’re adapting a work like Miss Hokusai, are there things you pay particular attention to?
H: I loved Sugiura Hinako, the original mangaka behind Sarusuberi, so I felt that my job was to bring the loveliness of the original work to the audience without harming it.
— What sort of factors did you take into account when making the film?
H: Definitely the art style. It needed to be Japanese-like, Edo-like. I was very aware of that when it was being designed. For example, I had the ukiyo-e painting called “The Great Wave” by Hokusai animated within the film so that it would move. We paid close attention to details and ideas like that.
On Recurring Themes and Future Work
— Many of your movies have supernatural themes. What do you find alluring about the supernatural?
H: I think that Japan as a country tends to accept the supernatural quite easily. The Edo period was very long, and unlike Europe and the Western world, periods like the Edo period without modernization lasted a long time. They believed in the supernatural, or rather, that people weren’t the top of the chain in the world. There are existences other than human in this world. Japanese people have a special feeling towards these things, such as the way we think about nature. Dead people can talk and move like they’re alive even after death. As a people, we naturally believe things like that. I really love that about Japanese people, and I want to continue making works that cherishes those types of themes.
— You don’t shy away from difficult themes in your movies, such as sudden deaths, prostitution, and adultery. Japanese censorship has gotten stricter over the years. Has this censorship had any effect on your movies?
H: Japan doesn’t really have strong censorship, but there is a ratings system in place. The screeners will say things like “this statement is too extreme, you should change it.” Those sorts of decisions are more often made in TV. The television networks adapt to the ratings system, and and I feel it weakens their messages. All movies undergo the same review system. G is the rating that means that everyone can watch a movie. In Colorful’s case, when the script was under review, they said that certain scenes or lines would make the movie PG-12, which means that there are extreme themes or scenes for children under 12. I didn’t want that to happen, so I changed the script so that it would have a G rating.
— You said that producers often don’t approve of the works you want to make. If you could, what story do you want to adapt?
H: There are various stories that I want to make into films, from adult-oriented live-action movies to family-oriented movies. There are various genres I want to challenge.
— Is there a specific work that you would love to see as an animated movie?
H: There are, but I can’t say any titles right now!
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article with photography by Hara T.