With his Atmospheric Era features Shan Nu ( Shan Na ) International competition in Tokyo In Film Festival, and the only Japanese director to helm FX’s upcoming Shōgun remake, Takeshi Fukunaga is on his way to fulfilling his promise Feature debut on The Great Performance, out of control .
Posted in 2015, Out of My Hand Follow a Liberian immigrant to New York Journey, using mostly non-actors, has won plaudits at music festivals from Berlin to Los Angeles. A decidedly atypical first film for a Japanese filmmaker, Out of Control marks Fukunaga as someone worth watching.
However, the film makes more sense in the context of Fukunaga learning his craft in the US and spending over a decade in New York – taking a filmmaking course in the US Brooklyn College – After two years in Minnesota.
“I studied filmmaking there, so my film language is heavily influenced by it…but my sensibility is Japanese,” Fukunaga told Hollywood Reporter , speaking at the Tokyo Superstar lineup press conference earlier this month.
Back to his hometown three years ago, “Reconnecting My Roots”, Fukunaga made his sophomore feature film Ainu Mosir , tells the story of the indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido, the hometown of the filmmaker. He again used non-actors, many of them local Ainu, a group whose culture had been destroyed, ignored, and then belatedly recognized – a situation of desperation and sadness that is incompatible with what indigenous peoples across the globe are suffering from. The treatment matches.
Yamanyu , Fukunaga’s third film, set in Japan The main island at the northern end, an area that shares geographical and anthropological elements with nearby Hokkaido. “It was inspired and very loosely based on a collection of folk tales called The Legends of Tono . Like folk tales from all over the world, they are like a time capsule, It encapsulates culture, customs, spirituality and the way people used to see the world,” Fukunaga said.
In previous productions, nature featured prominently in the film, along with an almost claustrophobic notion of community that spilled over into the oppression of the village at the center of the story . A related theme is scapegoating, which Fukunaga thinks has come up again in the early days of the pandemic outside Japan’s big cities.
“The people who were infected were blamed, even though it was not their fault. They were almost seen as outcasts of the company or the community,” Fukunaga advised. “Groups often look for a weakling to sacrifice in order to save the majority,” he added, referring to another central theme of the film.
While the story is deeply rooted in 18 century rural Japan, post-production was done in the United States, plus sources from international Feedback from the crew, which should help make it more accessible to a wider audience, Fukunaga hopes.
Going forward, it appears that crossing different cultures and media will continue to be a feature of Fukunaga’s career. The director says he loves the challenges of working on Shōgun, from “the sheer scale compared to shooting indie feature films” to the new experience of having a showrunner to answer . The filmmaker said he was acutely aware that the 1980 original series was based on James Clavier 1975 The phenomenon of the novel, simply broadcasting America, has aroused the interest of many viewers in Japan.
One drama is in production, another is in production, although he did not reveal further details. Internationally, Fukunaga is also currently editing a return to Ainu Documentary about people. But he’s going back to feature films, showing that he’s also more than willing to make another English-language film if the right idea arises.
