Film director fighting cancer Nobuhiko Obayashi's "will" (Part 2) October 25, 19:39
Director Nobuhiko Obayashi (81) completed the latest work in October, while receiving a life expectancy of cancer. The second part of a special feature that interprets the “will” that director Obayashi put in the movie twice from 20-hour interview material that has been in close contact for two years.
The director once said that “movies are made with feet,” but cancer is surely squeezed and can't stop walking with its own feet.
On the other hand, despite being a photographer, I have faced a situation where my vision has been lost due to intractable retinal disease for six years.
Mr. Obayashi gave a thoughtful word for my illness, saying, “I should be able to shoot because of you and me now,” even though my body was weak, reaching out and shaking hands. . In the second part, how will Obayashi face filmmaking in the situation where body freedom is lost due to cancer? Looking at the “I” viewpoint of a photographer who has been allowed long-term close coverage and loses his eyesight.
(Video Center Photographer Takaya Kawasaki)
Director of "Interviewer cry"
It's difficult to interview Obayashi.
Meals are taken NG. In addition, many media representatives have abandoned long-term interviews, saying, “Don't ask questions not related to philosophy”.
When I first started the interview, at the moment I directed the camera to the director who was going to stand up from the chair, I was told that I should not take “old” so, and I know how to make the camera point in the future. It has disappeared.
However, this winter brought about a change in the relationship, triggered by the director's high appreciation for the program that was directed to Paris. Now the director can answer my question over 30 minutes. Sometimes it's a word for "I" individuals who are not here and can't be used for broadcasting.
Last year, I was interviewing with the director about a program about director Obayashi's latest work. On the last day of the location of the director ’s hometown in Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, he told the director thanks for the close interview and returned.
“I'll be 30 years old and shoot 30 movies.
At first I thought it was a joke, but even after the program was broadcast, I felt that the real interview was not over yet. Then, he later pleaded with the director again, saying, “I want you to be in close contact with not only the shooting site but also the editing of the latest work.”
The director admitted the long-term coverage, "I hope Kawasaki can come with a small camera."
As a result, I think that one of the reasons why I was allowed long-term coverage was not only as a reporter but also as an individual, because I wanted to know more about Obayashi's way of life.
“I” of a photographer who loses sight
Speaking of director Obayashi, the feature is that the work is created with the maximum inspiration and ideas from the scene, without directing the script.
However, last summer, Obayashi noticed that he was unable to make the same film as before, as he continued to be close to filming new movies. You can't move around freely with your feet, and a thin voice doesn't reach the scene. I couldn't get my thoughts on the scene, and when I saw a director who sometimes showed irritation, I felt that I felt painfully.
When fighting in lost physical abilities, you will sometimes want to scream.
I lost my essential view as a photographer six years ago. Retinitis pigmentosa, one of the three major blindness diseases, is an intractable disease that narrows the field of view every year due to a decrease in photoreceptor cells in the retina. Doctors are told that there is a risk of blindness at age 60, as well as relying on advances in advanced medicine such as iPS cells.
Currently, my view is only 10 degrees. Visual acuity continues to decline. At Shibuya's scrambled intersection, you can hit people and not even walk decently.
I suffered a “fatal wound” as a photographer. What can we take from now on? I thought everything was over and decided to quit the photographer. Director Obayashi met two years ago to find out what he could shoot.
The body is affected by the disease and can't be left alone. Still, when I saw a new challenge, I began to feel that there is actually something I can do now.
Never do the same again
Director Obayashi has stated that "movies are made with" foot "".
At that time, the director's position was always right next to the camera. When actors hesitated to dive into the sea, they have made films with the front lines, such as jumping into the winter sea from the cliffs and showing examples.
However, cancer that repeats metastasis made the director's feet inconvenient and made it impossible to make Obayashi-style movies. In spite of this situation, I was surprised by the start of the production of the latest film “Seaside Movie Theater” last 44 years.
“Thanks to getting sick, I often opened my eyes. Everything in my eyes is“ life. ”As a filmmaker, it ’s the most energetic moment.”
Director Obayashi is known for producing 44 prolific films, but not being seized by past successes, and "doing the same thing never".
"It's not creative to do scary things. It's frustrating to be unable to walk, and it's a lot of frustration on the spot. Until now, you could only run what you saw on the spot and filmed it, but from now on, `` This is what I thought of as if it was here, so my work has really deepened. Decaying means having another talent. ''
Mizuka is called the “81-year-old newcomer”, and the latest film “Seaside Cinema” incorporates inexperienced elements such as tap dance, historical drama and action into the musical, creating a new worldview. Even considering adversity, he continued to challenge new techniques.
“There's so much more that humans are doing, and I think there are so many things that I don't know. Movies, music, everyone has done what everyone should do. It ’s said that we ca n’t do anything anymore, but it ’s ridiculous, there ’s a lot more that has n’t been done yet. It ’s like this. ”
Director Obayashi makes a movie with a fate of life expectancy and a fate that cannot be escaped. How can I survive the situation that cannot be helped by my own efforts, not only as a cameraman but also as a person with an intractable disease by continuing to look at the attitude of Nobuhiko Obayashi as an individual? I felt like I could get a hint of life from the director.
Cancer is rich in imagination
The director always points out that imagination is important for new expressions.
Now that wheelchairs have become the center of movement and are no longer driven through the field like before, it is said that it is imagination to compensate for the inconvenience.
(Director Obayashi) “I think that instead of being unable to move, my imagination has become richer. And this imagination is more than compensated for what I lost with my feet.”
Overwhelmed by that imagination was the editing work in May. The editing was approaching the stage for the preview.
Director Obayashi came to an editing studio in Tokyo, with his wife, producer, who has been filming movies together so far. All the lines of actors that have already been recorded are re-recorded.
Stakeholders say it's not normal movie production. Just before the bombing, the heroes talked to Hiroshima about when the atomic bomb would fall, and "August 6".
Director Ohbayashi told the actor, “Please read that, this is the 6th of August,” and muttered, “I ’m afraid.”
The younger generation imagined that they would not even know the day when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and they were trying to impress the day of August 6 as much as possible.
Focusing on every single word, working in the studio took more than three times the usual time.
“The words in the movie have to be directed so that you can get a good understanding of all the words in the movie, so we are trying to fix it,” he says. I used my imagination to spin up the words on how to convey it to the younger generation.
As for Obayashi's thorough commitment, Reiko said as follows.
(Producer / Mr. Atsuko) “I wonder if it is easy to communicate, what I think I should convey, or I just want to do it.
Director Obayashi has been fighting cancer for three years and has continued to produce. I added the land I reached to the last narration.
“The universe is also a companion of the same life. If a human becomes a companion as one small life, the universe is peaceful.”
Film is “non-weathered journalism”
Director Obayashi, who appeared at the preview when the movie was completed, talked to the people who gathered about the endless possibilities of the movie.
“You, the world really needs a movie right now. You can't change the past history of war with a movie, but the movie has the power to grab the peace of the future.”
And he spoke to the gathering reporters:
“Japan does n’t say my opinion because it ’s always to follow many in the same way, but I ’ve been so courageous to say so much. I think this is what the media should do in the future.Your role is not an information processor to explain, but to create a world peace with a philosophy. I would be glad if you could express the fact that the media would not be able to take the lead, and I would like to take this opportunity and never say it again.
Director Obayashi has always said, “Film is not a record but a“ journalism that does not weather ””.
“How do you live as a person who lives on the same path of journalism?”
I felt that the director was asking me to continue the interview.
From me who lost my legs to you who lost my vision
Director who became cancer, and imagination became richer and message became stronger. I felt that my imagination was linked to life around me and consideration for others.
In August, I visited the home of the director who just completed the latest work.
At the end of the interview, I gradually gave my hand to me who was losing my sight as my field of view narrowed year by year.
“The cameraman's sight's declining vision is also a great horror because he hasn't experienced it. What a cameraman who has lost his eyes will do is a hard time for an individual. But I do n’t know, it ’s not “other affairs.” I do n’t have anything to lose, I ’m sure it ’s my own, I ’m working hard. That's why I'm living hard, every day, so let's live together, I just have to handshake to do my best. Even "
What the director told me to get up from despair
Even after receiving a declaration of life expectancy, the director challenges the new work while saying "What you can do".
As I continued to interview closely for two years, I changed my mind, despairing about my situation and losing sight of my goal of living. Losing sight certainly narrowed the scope of what I could do. However, we should deepen what we can still do.
Just as Director Obayashi told me in the interview that “I am the peak at the moment”, I am now living face-to-face with intractable diseases, but I can actually do the best job of dealing with and communicating with people. It may be time.
The people I face in this work are those who are suddenly involved in a situation where they can't do anything with their own power, such as natural disasters and accidents, and face life after that. “I can't do anything with my own power.” Because I lived with an intractable disease, there was a moment when I felt that I was able to understand the feelings of people living in various situations rather than other people.
I keep losing my sight and vision in a physical sense every day, and like that, I may have a chance to open up the “heart's eyes” like Director Obayashi. Director Obayashi who challenged the making of the movie with his whole body gave a powerful message not only from the movie but also from his way of life.
Director Obayashi's latest film “Seaside Cinema Kinema no Tamate Box” will be screened for the first time at the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 28th. It will be screened at the Hiroshima International Film Festival in November and will be shown in theaters nationwide in April 2020, 75 years after the war.
Video center photographer
Takaya Kawasaki