Kaori Momoi and Yoko Narahashi Shine on Day 2 at KIFF
2015年10月16日(金) Report
Friday October 16 at the Kyoto International Film & Arts Festival saw two female powerhouses of Japanese film share a stage, and share ideas, with both holding screenings of their works.
Actress Kaori Momoi has worked on numerous independent films in the last few years, all around the world. For “Hee” though, she directed and acted in her own home in Los Angeles, to tell the tale of Azusa, an aging prostitute. Based on a book by Akutagawa Prize-winner Fuminori Nakamura, the story details the conversation between the lead character, and her psychiatrist.
Though the film wasn’t completed in time to premiere at KIFF this year, a feature length behind-the-scenes documentary was shown, giving extraordinary insight in to Momoi’s working process. “I decided at my age these are the films I have to make!” she said, explaining how she balances higher-paid Hollywood roles with low-budget independent roles.
The same afternoon, the Team Okuyama movie “Winds of God,” directed by Yoko Narahashi, was presented as part of the KIFF Special Screening section. Made in 1995 and starring Masayuki Imai and Shota Yamaguchi, it tells the story of a struggling comic duo that find themselves transported back in time to WWII, where they are part of the Kamikaze suicide squad.
Discussing the topic of times of change in a group interview, Narahashi spoke of the benefits of the fact that overall, the Japanese movie industry seems to have declined since she made “Winds of God.”
“The business is declining, theaters are going away, we just have cinema complexes and budgets are really going down. Which to me is fine, these are good obstacles, because someone who really wants to make a movie will still make it. When you get an artist in a tight situation, no money, no time, that’s when they will prove something. We will find people then who will come up.”
