46 Oku Nen No Koi (2006)
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
The Interview with Takashi Miike (Director)
Takashi Miike
"I don't feel any restrictions as far as style is concerned" Takashi Miike once said in an interview published on Kamera.co.uk - a fact proven once more by his new, visually intoxicating movie Big Bang Love, Juvenile A. The 46 years old Miike is a phenomenon: Over sixty productions - including feature and TV films as well as direct to video/dvd productions - are the fruits of the labours of the busy Japanese, who was educated at the "Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film" of his mentor Shohei Imamura. The director of such films as Audition and Dead or Alive is best known for - and quite frequently as well criticised for - displaying extreme violence in his films, often in combination with sexual taboos and perversion. The usually rather inscrutable and ambiguous endings of his films furthermore trigger many discussions.
So does the ending of Big Bang Love, Juvenile A - a film, by the way, Miike called at a question and answer session an "act of revenge" on the Berlinale because the film festival once in former times refused one of his films. With the prospect of an answer straight from the horses mouth we certainly didn't want to miss the interview with the director - and the chance to question him personally about the ending of his film.
Takashi Miike awaited us with his sunglasses in place and very laid back at the Berlin Grand Hyatt. 'Coolness' so he seemed to tell the world 'is my second name'. Fifteen minutes they gave us for the interview; very little time that was even more shortened by the interpreter who translated our questions into Japanese and the director's answers back into English. In the end, it turned out to be too little time: The question about the mysterious ending of Big Bang Love remained unasked and unanswered.
» Das Interview in deutscher Sprache.
ON: Bing Bang Love, Juvenile A is visually and aesthetically quite impressive. Did you already know what each scene was going to look like when you started filming?
Takashi Miike: ...
TM: When I read a script or a novel that is to be turned into a film I continuously visualise what I read and create my own images. My speed of reading therefore is very slow because I have to put together all these pictures in my mind. However, when making a film it is not necessary to realise each and every single image while reading the script. For me it is important to have a good crew to make a film. While shooting, I implement my own ideas into the script. The images that I am thereby creating are a mixture of my own ideas and of those of my crew. In the process of making a film you sometimes reach a point where you and your crew are not quite sure which way to go - I think that this is a really interesting part in making films.
ON: Does that mean as well that when you start filming you don't know for sure what the end will be like?
... whether blue & round ...
TM: Up to a certain extent, that is possible. In Bing Bang Love for example the opening part already differs from the original script. In the original there is no dance scene at all but I thought it was a good thing to develop my own ideas from the script and that such a dance scene should be included in the film. I think that it is quite a wonderful dance scene. A script is something like a contract between the producer and the actors and some of the investors. There is a certain guidance needed when making films. That means that the script is binding up to a certain point but not completely. The ending in Bing Bang Love for example is a little bit different from the original script as well. It is merely the way of expressing, of how to transfer the meaning, though, that changes. Actually, the meaning of the ending and of the whole story did not change at all. I think that this is quite an interesting aspect: The way of expressing things in the film is probably quite different from the original script but the meaning of the story is still very much the same.
ON: The music in Big Bang Love is used very thoughtfully.
... or yellow & square ...
TM: The best way to express the visual image of a film is to use no sound, no music, no sound effects and no words at all. The image is just the perfect format for this art form. The interesting thing, however, is that nowadays a lot of filmmakers use music all the time to express their feelings. With the right music you can control the mind of an audience quite effectively and everybody understands the meaning of the scene. I tried to escape from that kind of philosophy of filmmaking. I usually work together with the musician Kôji Endô who has composed numerous soundtracks for me. And although he is a musician he is not interested in using music all the time and in each and every scene. He sometimes decides to use no music at all in certain scenes because sometimes no music is the best music. To forbear from using music can be a highly effective way to express certain ideas and emotions and that is why we decided not to use music in some scenes.
ON: How do you choose your actors?
... never without his sunglasses!
TM: The main characters in Big Bang Love, Juvenile A are played by Masanobu Ando and Ryuhei Matsuda. Ando I saw for the first time in Takeshi Kitano's Film Kids Return where he is one of the main characters. I really loved that role and felt that Masanobu Ando was a very good actor. I therefore decided that I wanted to work with him one day. The other main actor is Ryuhei Matsuda whose father Yusaku Matsuda was a very charismatic and famous movie star. Sadly, he passed away at young age, shortly after playing a major character in Black Rain. As Yusaku's son Ryuhei has quite an actor-like way of life and is really charismatic I wanted him to play this role. However, the reasons why I wanted to work with these actors probably do not have any meaning for the audience, especially the audience overseas who does not know so much about the background of these actors. But when you see them playing their part in the film they really give it some meaning and have a big impact. Everybody can feel something from their way of acting because their way of playing, their experiences in the past and their way of live are quite different from those of other people.
ON: Thank you for the interview.
