How did director Shunji Iwai of ‘Kyrie’s Song’ and ‘Love Letter’ deal with the great earthquake and tsunami in Japan?

How did Japanese film director Shunji Iwai (60) view the disaster in Japan?

At 4:30 pm on the 6th, a meeting was held for the movie ‘Kyrie’s Song’ (directed by Shunji Iwai) in the training room on the 8th floor of the U-dong Film Industry Center in Haeundae-gu, Busan. Attending the meeting that day were director Shunji Iwai and actors Aina the End, Suzu Hirose, and Hokuto Matsumura.

On this day, Director Shunji Iwai said, "I came to the first Busan International Film Festival with a film called 'April Story.' It is a film festival that has developed along with my career, so I feel close to it like brothers and classmates." “I’m really glad I could come,” he said. He then said, “It was nice to meet a new generation of young fans yesterday,” and “Please take good care of me.”

When asked why director Shunji Iwai used his own traumas, such as the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, in the film, he said that there was an earthquake where he was born and raised, and said, "I felt the earthquake as something close to me. Someday, I will turn this into film as my main job." “I thought I would have to face the theme, but now, 12 years later, I am able to release the movie,” he said.

He said, “I thought it was impossible to express a movie with the theme of an earthquake. What I could do was how to deal with the earthquake on a personal level.” “Everyone has a personal experience or experience of being indirectly affected by it, so I thought about how to deal with it,” he said.

Director Shunji said, "I drew this story a year after the earthquake, but at that time, the story was not complete to reveal and the ending was not completed, so now, 12 years later, I decided to express it as 'Kyrie's Song'." “I made this film because disasters such as the tsunami are not a problem that has been solved, but something that must continue to be dealt with,” he said.

Director Iwai then talked about the short running time and editing. He said, "First of all, in Japan, it is shown in theaters as a 3-hour edited version. However, because each country has different sentiments, there was a request to shorten it to 2 hours, so it was very difficult for the director. This film is a 2-hour movie and a 1-hour performance. It is a film made possible. An important part of editing to 2 hours was to refrain from editing the music as much as possible. It was really difficult to make a 2-hour version. However, I hope that the audience who watched the 2-hour version will be interested and watch the 3-hour version. “I do it,” he said.

Aina the End, who plays Kyrie, attracted attention by revealing that she personally produced six songs in the movie. He said, "Because I produced music while working on other activities, I had to work at home with a guitar in the early morning and late at night. I made it with a towel in my mouth." He added, "Because Kyrie is a character who cannot speak other than sing, she shouts, in other words, in a way that is close to screaming. “I thought that the message should be conveyed through this. I produced it with the idea that it would be nice to be able to convey the peak of emotions through a scream coming from the soul, rather than a response that the song has good singing skills, is good at singing, or has a beautiful melody,” he explained.

Director Iwai, who did the mixing himself, said, "I tried to preserve the feeling of busking. Usually, when producing music, I first pick the music in the studio and film the performance scene to match it, but this time, I wanted to deliver the lively song and live performance as is. Gina “I wanted to give the feeling of listening to busking that I heard on the way,” he said. “I wanted to recreate that feeling, so I measured the distance to that building, calculated how many seconds it took for the reflection to arrive, and recorded it. This was a really enjoyable experience.”

In particular, Director Iwai said, "I thought it was necessary for the flow of the story" regarding Kirie being sexually assaulted in the work. I paid homage to several sequences. I was greatly influenced by director Masahiro Shinoda, and one day I asked him to watch ‘Kyrie’s Song.’ Perhaps, after watching ‘Wandering Goze Orin’ and watching ‘Kyrie’s Song,’ there were some homages and representations. “You will feel this many times,” he explained.

Regarding the interpretation of the character, Suzu Hirose, who plays Ikko, said, "Although her appearance is flashy and changes all the time, I did not interpret or act differently depending on her appearance. I thought that Ikko's flashy appearance was similar to a kind of mask and enjoyed cosplay. “I started acting,” he said.

Hokuto Matsumura, who played the role of Natsuhiko, said about running to find loved ones, "I don't think it was a sense of responsibility, and I think there were various emotions such as a sense of justice and responsibility that I didn't understand," and "I ran 41 km with feelings that I didn't even understand." “I interpreted it as running and acted,” he said.

Lastly, Director Shunji Iwai said, "After making 'Love Letter,' whenever Korean audiences met me, they always greeted me with 'Ogenki Desuka.' Since then, Korea felt like a friendly relative. 30 years have passed since then. “The fact that I am still able to function in good health is a miracle in itself,” he said. “I am proud and happy that I was able to produce and deliver works with the young and talented friends sitting next to me today. Of course, there are heavy points, but the younger generation “I think it is a film about youth,” he said.

Director Shunji Iwai's new film 'Kyrie's Song', well known to Korean audiences for the films 'Love Letter', 'April Story', and 'All About Lily Chou Chou', was selected in the Window of Asian Cinema section at the 28th Busan International Film Festival. I was invited.

'Kyrie's Song' is about three people: 'Kirie' (Aina the End), a street musician who speaks only through singing, 'Ikko' (Suzu Hirose), a friend who erased herself, and 'Natsuhiko' (Hokuto Matsumura), a man looking for his missing lover. An emotional story that tells a secret story. It is scheduled to be released domestically in October.

Busan Choi Ji-ye, Ten Asia reporter wisdomart@tenasia.co.kr