Special feature of 1905 film network In your memory, what is the most beautiful flower?
Everyone must have his own answer, at least the Japanese filmmaker gave his personal answer in his directorial debut.
This filmmaker, who has made such works, first directed the tube and chose his own novel of the same name — — Apart from being a filmmaker, he is also a writer and has published many books. His first novel, If there were no more cats in the world, has many fans among domestic teenagers.
Based on his native land, this filmmaker also has many cooperative contacts with China. He is a Japanese producer and participates in the filming of the crew in Japan. His novel "Hundred Million Men" has already been officially announced, and it is planned to remake it into a China story.
He also admitted in an interview with the 1905 film network that he and the director liked the novels very much and hoped to cooperate in the future.
Talk about new works
The film My Last Year with Mom was adapted from Genki Kawamura’s novel of the same name, which is a semi-autobiographical story.
Genki Kawamura has written five novels, but every time he writes, he hopes to write stories that can’t be filmed in movies. The origin of this story is that his grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease, but she didn’t think about film and television at first.
Shortly after the novel was published, he received a phone call from the actor. One of the most potential and influential young actors in Japan, perhaps because he is about to enter the marriage hall, or perhaps because of emotional impact, he cried after reading this story. "If the story is to be filmed, you must give him the role of’ Quan’."
As early as 2018, the two collaborated on the short film "Duality" and merged into the main competition unit of the Cannes International Film Festival. "I feel that if Suda Masaki can play, this story will be filmed well."
The actor who plays the role of mother in the film is Mieko Harada. "Her mother also suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. No one knows this disease better than her, so she is a very suitable candidate."
All the characters have found suitable actors, but this story belongs to Genki Kawamura’s private memory after all, and there is an emotional investment beyond the past.
It is true that there is an old saying in China that we should not wash our dirty linen in public. "My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, and when she was young, she temporarily left her children because of the person she liked. This is inconvenient for the family to talk to outsiders. "
From the creative level, the emotional energy carried by these characters comes from the people they know best. "Sometimes it is difficult to deal with this unspeakable relationship, but this may also be a common problem for every creator in this kind of theme creation."
In the movie, there was a scene in which Quan came to his mother’s room and found that her mother had written many notes, which were all about her son’s daily life. "When I saw the notes, the actors began to cry unconsciously, and I began to cry outside the camera. Because this happened to my grandmother, because I am also thinking, can this forgetting be understood as a mother-child relationship? "
In Genki Kawamura’s resume, there are many animated films, and he put his sensitivity to color in the film My Last Year with Mom.
The hero Quan often wears purple clothes, while his mother wears yellow clothes. Purple and yellow are in a focused position in the color spectrum. "This also symbolizes the gap between mother and child."
Of course, the director also used a lot of ingenuity in the design of the mother’s role clothes.
When I was young, my clothes were relatively bright, and I gradually lost my memory at the back. The overall color was mainly plain. "Use the color to fade to show the change of memory."
Talking about AI
In the story "My Last Year with Mom", the mother’s memory is gradually lost, and the son has been looking for the mystery behind the memory. It is a process of searching.
In fact, since Genki Kawamura’s first novel "If there are no more cats in the world", the motif of his works has never changed. "I have been looking for it. We look for its value through what we have lost."
In his view, memory is lost, or someone dies. "I don’t want everyone to regard it as a tragedy, for example, flowers will wither, but because of this, people will pity it and think it is particularly beautiful."
At the end of the movie, the half-blooming fireworks are even more so. It makes people look incomplete and even disappear in an instant. "This is the real touch as a person."
In fact, this feeling came from Genki Kawamura’s childhood. When he was a child, he watched the fireworks show and couldn’t see the complete fireworks. He asked his mother how to see it more completely, but when he grew up, he could see the most complete and beautiful fireworks. "I still feel more moved and more beautiful when I was a child."
This imperfection has become perfection.
In the movie, Genki Kawamura is involved in the highly discussed AI topic. At the end, Quan’s colleagues pointed out that the problem of AI is precisely because it will not be forgotten.
In reality, Genki Kawamura feels that the progress and development of AI has made everyone see where the real limit of human creativity lies. "I think people’s personality and creativity are not formed by accumulation, but by loss or trauma." Maybe some people can paint, write articles and do many things with AI technology, but it will never be comparable to human creation.
Jumping out of the film creation, Genki Kawamura plans to have a similar dialogue with AI. As for the forms, it may be a magazine serial or other art forms. "It will be a very fun thing."
Talking about China market
In just half a year, Genki Kawamura’s two films were released in China, one was the animated film Journey to the Bell Bud, and the other was My Last Year with Mom.
In his view, the former is a commercial film, and the latter is relatively more literary. "If you can have in-depth exchanges with China audiences in both business and literature, I believe there will be further contact and cooperation in the future."
In particular, the movie Journey to the Bell Bud broke the box office by 800 million yuan, and at the same time extended the release time again. For this producer, it was a very happy and satisfying thing. I also had discussions with director Makoto Shinkai privately, and both felt that for the creation of the next film, "the burden on me is even heavier."
The fate of Genki Kawamura and China can even be traced back to the filming period in Detective Chinatown 3.
As a Japanese producer, he provided many references for the casting of Japanese actors for this film, and provided many directions for the film to choose scenes in Japan. Now that the world is open again, he is eager for more and more Japanese filmmakers to shoot in Japan.
Apart from the director, every time he attends an international film festival, he always meets many China teams to discuss with him which of his novels can be made into a China story. It is worth mentioning that Huace Film has already officially announced that it will remake its novel "100 million men". Many fans are very curious about China’s casting. Genki Kawamura said frankly, "It may take some time to take shape."
He did not forget to mention China actors, feeling that China actors always have a lot of freedom. "He can be an actor or a director himself. They will not be bound and can give full play to their talents as much as possible. "
Genki Kawamura also specifically mentioned China science fiction writer Liu Cixin, "I and director Makoto Shinkai are his fans. If there is an opportunity, I hope to cooperate with him. "
