Q: How did the collaboration between your co-directors work? Did each of you take a section or did you all work on all sections?
Ishii (I): We are all doing whatever we like. Especially Aniki is the one doing what pleases him the most.
ANIKI (A): No way, not just me, everyone is doing what we darn well please.
I: We did not split our jobs or anything did we?
Miki (M): We all did whatever we wanted to do, and then gave it consistency to it afterwards. We talked about how we would combine the stories afterwards. The reason why we started this was because we wanted to do something that we liked; however if it was just that, the film would be just a compilation of shorts films. So we still wanted to do whatever we wanted to do the most, but at the same time make it into one connected film.
I: If we make rules such as limiting the piece down to certain amount of minutes, it becomes producer driven. Even if we are told that the piece should be 20 min., the piece that you want to make might not be 20 min., so it was like, who cares about stuff like that! That was our mentality.
M: The overall impression was that we want to give it some compassion, human warmth throughout the whole entire film.
I: Humanity = Downtown Neighborhood sitcomish (From Ai: Downtown Tokyo is often depicted as story with a human touch, do you know the Tora-san series? If you can find the right word to explain it please change it) that’s what I was aiming for.
M: Dance & Music was Aniki’s theme. And the kind of grotesque gags and jokes are mine.
I: The ones you want to grunt “Woo, gross…” on a physiological level are usually yours.
M: The characters appear and interwine through out all the stories, so it might be confusing, but that would be the basic distinction among us.
Q: The visual effects are astounding. How did you achieve the “small-headed bloodsucker” effect?
A: Thank you very much. The Tamotsu Yamada effects was made possible by first creating a special effects plastic art figure. After it was shot with that, the face of the actor was morphed on to it with CGI. The sticks that were used to move the figure was erased at the post production stage.
Q: Are you willing to explain the meaning of the name stamp?
A: In Japan, name stamps are very commonly used in place of a signature. For contracts, we often use name stamps instead of signatures. So we thought it would be funny that something like a name stamp came out in that situation. There is no deep meaning to it.
Q: I’ve seen reviewers describe this film as experimental or expressionistic, but it seems to me to be less of a surreal fantasy than a literal translation of a traumatic sexual experience as perceived by a child. Are either of us close to right?
A: Thank you. We really did not give it much thought and just created stuff that just popped in our minds. We really did not think things through that deeply. All we did was enjoyed the entire process.
Q: My assistant is curious to know what is the most vivid dream you have ever had?
I: For some reason, I was living in a castle full of reason, I was living in a castle full of mice. We all were supposed to protect the castle from a gigantic broomstick ghost. I was the head of the strategic department, and fought with together with all the mice. I saw this dream two nights in a row, so I remember this clearly.
M: Ishii-san and Aniki were taking a bath with all these beautiful women from all around the world. But myself being a stoic guy decide not to join, and go outside, but while I am climbing up the hill and come to this huge front gate, I regret to myself, “I should have gone inside the tub…”
A: I become a bubble in the middle of space. I go back and forth from ballooning up to shrinking to a smaller size, so it was a ticklish dream. (I used to see this dream a lot between first grade to third grade.)
Q: What is the best film you have seen this year?
I: It is not a film, but there is a Japanese Animation DVD series “Aim to the Top 2 (Japanese title: Top Wo Nerae)” Vol. 1-6 (Produced by GAINAX). This series quite amazing!!
M: I also think it’s “Aim to the Top 2? It is just super great. If you watch “Aim to the Top” and then “Aim to the Top 2.” It’s even more amazing.
A: I can not decide on a favorite, so the film that I saw most recently favorite, so the film that I saw most recently was Mikio Naruse’s “When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.”
And Coming Soon: A full CG version of the Mole Brothers (5 eps of 7min)!
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