Interview Tetsuya Chihara x Mieko Kawakami x Satoho Yoshioka | The movie "Ice Cream Fever"

――For Chihara, "Ice Cream Fever" will be the first film director. How are you feeling now before the exhibition?

Chihara: I feel scared of what I made for the first time. I've never felt like this because I've been designing so far, but there's a fear that I'm standing on the arrowside in a naked state or standing on the cliff. I still keep my mind in such a situation because I have as much fun. I'm really looking forward to the release date, and I'm excited every day.

――Originally, I heard that Mr. Kawakami, who was consulted on film production from Mr. Chihara, started to move concretely by recommending "ice cream heat."

Kawakami: When Chihara-kun said, "I want to shoot a movie," I was struck before the content, "I'm going to do new things!" We are of the same generation, but doing new things = becoming a newcomer in that field, so I felt honestly amazing. When I talked about an hour at Starbucks, Chihara-kun said, "I want to do it together," and I was interested in "my novel film adaptation," which I was not interested in until now. At that time, I suddenly came to mind "ice cream heat." The reason I chose the short story was that I thought, "The shorter the original, the better." By making a short novel into a movie, it will be a multi-layered content.

Chihara: "Jose, the Tiger and the Fish" is the same.

Kawakami: That's right. So when I proposed it to Chihara-kun, I said "Eyan." It was decided in the first 20 minutes of speaking for an hour. It was long from there. Congratulations on your completion.

Chihara: Thank you very much. It may have taken the most time to find out how much to cook the original draft called "ice cream heat" and how much to do what you want to do and incorporate the ideas of others there. The movie was sacred to me, so at first I was shy and looked for it.

――What kind of impression did you have when you read "ice cream heat"?

Chihara: I've read a few Kawakami's short stories, but the goal is not a success or failure. I don't have a clear goal for this work, but my feelings change a bit. It's not time for someone to die at the end, defeat an enemy, or give a clear answer, but even if they don't finally get an answer, they're changing. I wanted to do that through video expression, so I felt like I was hooked.

――It seems that Mr. Kawakami came up with the idea of "story between girls" by Natsumi played by Yoshioka and Saho played by Motora.

Kawakami: Yes. After I finished writing this work myself, I sometimes think back, "If it was a story between girls, I might have been able to write longer." It's also one of the reasons why I recommended this work, and that idea came out from the beginning.

Yoshioka: That's right!　I learned it for the first time. I was surprised to read the script because it was a story of men and women in the original work.

Kawakami: Nowadays, the words "Sisterhood" and "Empowerment" have come to be used relatively much, but in my novels there are many stories that are paired with each other. In that sense, it was a natural flow. I always think in the creation, "I wish I could draw emotions and relationships that have not yet been named." For example, instead of bringing it to a story of love that we can feel safe, we value the feeling of "I don't know".

Yoshioka: It's a very fresh story.

Kawakami: Is that true?　I'm happy.

Chihara: I've always been trapped in the stereotype of "I have to give an answer." There are many advertisements in the design work you are working on, so you are asked to give a clear answer. "What do you feel about him?" "What do you mean in this scene?" When asked, "Why do you want to shoot a movie?", I had to have all the answers, but I feel like this movie has changed that feeling. There is a phrase in the movie that says, "I'm just because I don't have an answer," but she said that she didn't have an answer.

When I actually started shooting, there was a place where I was trying to get too much "the answer to my own style." I applied myself to the feeling like "Kon Ichikawa shoots this way, Wes Anderson is like this", but after I no longer thought, Yoshioka and others said, "I feel the air of this movie I'm getting an answer. "

Kawakami: That's right. Was this filming an unusual experience for Mr. Yoshioka?

Yoshioka: It's completely different from the past. In the film scene I've been participating in, there is quite a lot of time for the director and the actor to coordinate the roles. For example, we conducted tests 3 or 4 times, and then proceeded to the actual production. This time, it was not the case, but it was a site where we took pictures as it was. In a sense, the moment when I was exposed is also taken, so it is often said that it was "grown" to those who watched it. This time there are some people who play for the first time, so I think this method of shooting naturally was very effective.

Also, it was fresh that I didn't understand the taste. During this time, I participated in the work of Director Takashi Miike, and after seeing the director's past work, for example, the intensity of shooting the violence scene with Director Miike, I entered the scene with the image of the director. But Chihara is the first film director, so there is no movie work that can be referenced. I felt like I was touching on the production method for the first time at the site.

Chihara: On the first day of the filming, it was a scene where there was only Mr. Yoshioka. Mr. Yoshioka's face, who put himself on the spot, said, "That's right. This is a place to challenge with this kind of feeling, "I felt the atmosphere and performed, so I was greatly helped.

Yoshioka: What surprised me was that many of the staff were on the scene of the film for the first time. When I first appeared in a student movie when I was a teenager, everyone didn't know the right or left, and I was just pushing forward with the feeling that "we like this", and I thought that I could experience that feeling again as an adult I did not think.

Chihara: Mr. Yoshioka was the only experienced person in the film scene (laughs).

Yoshioka: I was also working on a scripter (the staff who records the details of the photographed material) (laughs). There is a scene where the rain falls and gets mechased up, but while checking the "connection" (with the previous scene), I think like "Is it okay?", And Shiwa says, "I want to try it because my green lips are cute," and make-up says, "Wait a minute!" And sometimes I think it's funny to shoot in today's scene!" That kind of experience was also interesting. Under such circumstances, when I told Chihara that the hairstyle is not connected, I was told, "But it was OK because the painting was good," and in me, "I am now at the site of making new things That's it. "

Chihara: The words "realism" and "realism" are often mentioned in the creation of works, but in my movie, the one who made a little fashionable look is "poi". The hairstyle is the same, and I thought it would be possible to create the atmosphere of this movie by being conscious of that part rather than coherent.

Kawakami: By the way, is Yoshioka and Chihara-kun long since they met each other?

Yoshioka: I met you about 7 years ago, and from there I've been asking you to direct my calendar.

Chihara: People who meet once a year (laughs). But this time, just like Mr. Yoshioka, there were people who touched on "Remonraifu" and my design, so I guess there was a imprint that could not be words. I felt that he understood something like a rhythm, "This is different."

――I heard that this film had the concept of "designing film production (from the beginning)," but at the root of the zero-based approach at the site, there was a common language called "Chihara-san's design".

Chihara: I think so. However, by myself, I couldn't find the feeling, air, and light of my picture alone with the images I had finished shooting, so I found it during editing work. Since design is the job of adjusting the color of the photo taken, adding text, and processing it, do you say that you understand yourself through such work in film production?

Yoshioka: When I saw the completed main story, I once again thought, "Chihara is an editor and a design person." At the shooting site, the way the sound and letters are entered, and the balance between color and light is not fully imagined, and it is often noticed that "it will be such a cute world" and "time will intersect like this". There were many. For example, the scene at the moment of whether Natsumi and Saho (Motora Rina) kiss or not is a script is a series of scripts, but in the completed main part, it is used in a fragment, and I really liked how to edit flashback that I didn't know whether it was a dream or true.

――How did you see the completed work?

Yoshioka: I'm worried, too. I wanted to hear this when I met Mr. Kawakami, but was the story changed to "ice cream heat" so far?

Kawakami: There are a lot of characters that I don't know (laughs). Actually, I wasn't very interested in visualizing my own work until now. I didn't feel the need. But this time, I think it's very good.

Yoshioka: It was good…！ Mr. Kawakami also had the image of "not making a movie", so the first impression was "Can you do it with Mr. Kawakami's original draft? ? It was. I think there is a friendship relationship with Mr. Kawakami's Chihara, but I was really happy to hear from Mr. Chihara that "I accepted it generously." At the same time, I'm worried about why Mr Kawakami entrusted me.

Kawakami: I can't explain it well by myself, but it may be a big thing that I was independent. Until now, even if you talk about making a movie, you may feel that you have such a budget and are looking for an original that is addicted here, but this time it's completely different. I'm respectful of creators doing it as an independent, so I didn't have any concerns about "I don't know what will happen for the first time." Rather, I was able to trust Chihara-kun's creative impulse and a spirit of challenge to go to the unknown.

Yoshioka: I'm very impressed with it. I don't think if you just get along, you won't give your rights or "let's make things together." But this time, it's nice that professionals are working together with each other with confidence.

Kawakami: After all, I've seen Chihara-kun working hard alone, including raising funds. I think it's a miracle until a movie appears in the world. Of course, there's a very long way to publish the novel, and it's not something everyone can do, but the movie involves an incomparable number of people, so I want to say "congratulations" first just in shape. For the first time, I was able to see it from such a viewpoint.

Yoshioka: I understand. I have also seen directors and producers I met in the past struggling to collect budgets, so I was moved by Chihara's ability to realize and the enthusiasm for saying "Please give me" for many years I was moved.

Kawakami: By giving it to the world, evaluations and results come out as numbers, and that's taken as it's- Basically, I think that it is absolutely necessary to know after the age of 30 that you start out once in your life, get sick, lose important people, or don't know what will happen tomorrow. That's why creators should do whatever they want without worrying about people's complexion. Chihara-kun did it in his late 40s, and I think it's really amazing.

Chihara: I didn't do such a story at all before it started (laughs). Mr. Kawakami always said, "Eyeyan!" even though he sent the script in the middle stage and the main video being edited.

Kawakami: That's right. "Yeah, yeah!" It's just a lot (laughs).

Yoshioka: A very good story…。 I'm very happy to be able to answer each other.

Kawakami: I'm happy too. Creative is a try-and-error, isn't it? Later, while thinking, "I may have been able to do this at that time", only the feeling that I came out of the optimal solution at that time that "I couldn't do more than that" pushed my back and lived in that way I have no choice but to live. That's why I would be most happy if young people watched this movie and thought, "I want to do something too."

Chihara: That's right.

Kawakami: It's very important to be recognized by people who have watched various things, but I think the most important thing about creating is to give something to people who don't know who they are or don't know what they want to do.

Chihara: I wonder if we can take the spirit there. At first, I really care about people's evaluation, and "Is it right? Isn't it wrong?" This time, I'm glad I could be able to think "I'm right or nothing" from the middle.

Kawakami: No matter how happy an expression is, I think it will generally hurt people. Because the situation is different for each recipient, for example, there are always people who get hurt by just the title of "Yellow House" in my novel. That's why we have to take on the premise that "we are doing an unavoidable task that hurt someone." On top of that, I would like to give encouragement and energy, such as "Let's live at this time anyway", even if it is not represented by a smile, and I myself also want it.

Both movies and novels, aren't the work we are doing so helpless for those who are really stuck? I think that it will be this year if we always have to think about that we are engaged in this.

"Ice Cream Fever" is very young, sparkling and fresh, so some people may not be able to adapt to such a world. But glittering things do not represent glittering things, and dark things do not represent dark things. I hope that some kind of energy will be created by a transient encounter between the work "ice cream fever" and the person who saw it.

Chihara: Like our children, I feel that people of today's generation tend to be unable to move without clear answers. I can move when I say "Please go to point A", but I'm not surprisingly used to "let's go for the time being" or "let's enjoy the excitement." I have the impression that both movies and games are considered, answered, and played while watching the capture method. In that sense, entertainment is becoming a clear answer.

But I don't have an answer about how to make this film, and even if I set the final goal to "be screened at movie theaters", what is the equation? If you finally have delicious food, you can cook it freely. I would be glad if you could feel a broad perspective on how creatives interact with each other without exposing the feeling of learning by looking at my way of thinking.

Yoshioka: "Ice Cream Fever" is also a work that gives you encounters with creators. One POP written by Natsumi I played was written by illustrators, and the figure placed on the table was for up-and-coming artists, so many people with antennas come out.

Natsumi also breaks down the dream of being a designer and says, "If you take a design from yourself, you are a person with nothing, nothing left," but after that I met Saho and said, "I feel like I can still do it." I get the courage to think. I love the story, "I don't necessarily have one person to catch a dream." I can open up the future by meeting someone who works hard, so I would be glad if everyone could think of going out a little under the name of "watching a movie".

――One of the stages of "ice cream fever" is Shibuya, and today's interview site is Shibuya PARCO. Please tell me your memories of Shibuya.

Chihara: I'm from Kyoto, and I came to Shibuya about twice a year by night bus and went shopping, and went to a new shop I saw in magazines. I went to a record shop, went to a cafe, went to a select shop, bought clothes, and watched a single-house movie that did not come to Kyoto.…。 After doing that, I was back on a night bus.

Kawakami: For me, it's a bittersweet city. I was originally engaged in music activities and came to Tokyo from Osaka in 2000, but I always went to the office or studio while feeling that "a lot of music is sounding in the city, but only my own music is not sounding." So now, when I walk in Shibuya, I think, "It's been a lot of time." It is a city that reminds you that young people come here with dreams.

――Even after you have a career, you have the bittersweetness in yourself.

Kawakami: Yes, and it will come back. Shibuya has a "dani", so the up and down is intense. Every time you walk, you think about it, and there are places where it can be a switch that reminds me of it.

Yoshioka: Shibuya's charm is the feeling that young people living today gather and go with each other. Natsumi is buried in it and is worried about "how to establish himself", but I think the atmosphere where there are so many people who do not know what kind of people are in this city was persuasive because I took it in Shibuya.

――Do you have any memories of Shibuya yourself?

Yoshioka: The movie theaters are shown until late, so I often go after work. There are many shops I like. But I didn't use it very much for shooting, so I had a rare experience this time. I think there's a day to skate in Shibuya! (laughs).

What impressed me in this filming is that it was finally cut, but the skateboard went down the slope. While the staff was trial and error on how to shoot it, I and Motora Serina were told that they could take a break, so they got out of the scene and went out of the scene and dated it at a shaved ice shop. That was really fun. The scene itself wasn't used, but I think that time is alive for Natsumi's glittering smile afterwards.