Features Interviews Udine Far East Film Festival

Interview with director Muguruma Shunji: “In this case we have a girl who is using the 21st century rock to rescue a boy”

Director was born in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture in 1969. He has been directing – and often writing – several films and TV Dramas, his latest work “JK Rock” was premiered internationally in Udine.

On the occasion of “JK Rock” screening at Udine Far East Film Festival we talked about rock and roll, purple Lamboghinis, girl power and the energy of the young generation.

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Where did the inspiration for the story of “” come from?

I always wanted to create a story with youngsters and rock. A long time ago, I also directed a TV drama, “Esu o Nerae!” (Ace) which originally was a popular comic book. The leading actress was Aya Ueto and she was portraying the story of a girl wanting to become a tennis player but she wasn't very good at it, so she finds a coach that was very very strong and train her and it becomes a story of fight and love at the same time between the coach and the young tennis girl. So I wanted to reproduce this kind of story also in a movie because this comic book is from the 70s and I wanted this story using rock in the 21st century. So I would say that this was the main inspiration.

Some of the young actresses of “JK Rock” were also in your previous film. What is it that made you wanted to work with them again?

Yes, the film you are referring to is called “The Pulse of Wind” and it was my previous work. At the time they were at the first year of Junior High school so they were just like little children. But this time around they had become teenagers, they were no longer in their childhood and because of this I thought that especially Chihiro Hayama, the leading actress in “The Pulse of Wind”, was very good in action. She is the one that plays the drums, so the film is about music but at the same time it requires lots of energy and I was so certain that she would be very good at that role and in fact that was the case. Even though there wasn't enough time to train for that before shooting, in the end everything worked out very well. Also, these three girls all have a very unique personality and they expressed their personality exactly like they are in the movie, so it all came along very well.

Many Japanese movies are based on manga, but on the contrary, your movie has an original script that looks like a manga. It has this very enjoyable, colorful, over-the-top feeling and plenty of sense of humor. Why this stylistic choice? Did you have a target audience in mind?

Yes, absolutely I had a target audience in mind. From the very beginning, I wanted to make a film for teenagers, this movie wants to be entertaining and very fun for teenagers to watch. Also, over the past few years in Japan, kids, especially in places of education, are having a very stagnant situation. Both those who are teaching and those who are learning are stagnant and there is also the problem of bullying. So I thought if there was anything I could do in order to give some contribution to that and I thought that when you teach something to somebody you have to be severe and strict sometimes but at the same time it is ok to be strict if there is some sort of respect and love for those people. That is what I wanted to convey as a message, along with the entertainment factor. In terms of the colors I must say my inspiration was “Good Morning” by Yasujiro Ozu that was extremely colorful. “Whiplash” was also a reference of mine.

So, why rock? And who wrote the music of the film? It was really great!

First of all, I really love rock music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, also because at that time I was a bit younger and I really enjoyed it and rock was really something to get excited about. But then when we got into the 21st century, rock became something a bit more sophisticated, it lost that spirit of “let's go, let's rock, let's do something together!” So I wanted the new generation, the youngsters of today to bring that back for us. Rock is supposed to be something that makes you go against a wall and destroy that wall, it has to be about power, it has to be about energy. That is what I had in mind when I decided to create this movie. As for the music, it is by Mr. Gara (vocalist and co-founder of Visual-Kei-style band MERRY); he also appears in the film, in one of the auditions of the band, and he was always on set with me and everyday he was supervising and made sure everything was ok.

Talking about the music, the girl band, the Drop Doll, is now a proper existing band, I was wondering how do you feel at having put the whole thing in motion.

Well, of course I really hope from the bottom of my heart that they all become stars. As for Chihiro Hayama, I think she will become an actress or perhaps a singer as well. But they all are multi talented and so I really want them to become great stars.

There is a very powerful line in the movie. When Sakura asks: “What is Rock?” and she is answered back: “It is you. Right now”. I interpreted it like “it is this energy that comes from you.” Do you get your energy from young people? I know you work a lot with young actors and stories about young people.

Yes, definitely, I do receive energy by working with young actors. At the same time, I also teach film studies at the University so I have plenty of opportunities of being in touch with the young generation. I must say that in comparison with when I was young, Japanese girls nowadays are very powerful. In fact, in the movie, Sakura uses the Japanese word “Ore” to say “I”. In Japanese we have several ways to say “I” and “Ore” is the one that “real men” use, so it's a very man-ish way to refer to herself, this is the manly power of the word she uses. So maybe this movie is the opposite of the usual dynamic; you would think of a male character saving a female character but in this case we have a girl who is using the 21st century rock to rescue a boy. I think this is the really interesting thing about it .

Rock is usually perceived as a more male genre of music and especially in movies. I thought it was interesting you utilised male characters to bring the female characters to the front and I was wondering how intentional was that.

As I was saying at the very beginning, my original idea was to recreate the same pattern of “Esu o Nerae!” where you have this girl who is really useless that meets a coach who is very strict but who, at the same time has love for her and in the end she gets to Wimbledon. So originally it was actually a strong man figure that helps the girl.

Why did you choose to use a purple Lamborghini in you film and how challenging was to film in Tokyo with that?

In the script, from the very beginning there was the idea of using a sport car and I thought it had to be an open car and at that moment the executive producer said that we had to choose either a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. But I was trying to get out of the talk because we didn't have enough budget. He, very nicely said: “Don't worry, I'll think about it” and he provided me with some pictures and since I said I really wanted to be in charge of all the colors of the movie, I was the one who choose purple. In terms of driving in Tokyo, there was the issue that you need all the equipment where you place the car in order to drive and film, but we couldn't find any company that could do it because they didn't have experience with sport cars and they were afraid of damaging the Lamborghini. So we decided that the actor had to really drive the car around Tokyo and it was one of our condition in the audition that they had to be able to drive that car.

I saw that you wrote all you previous movies, but in this case there is a scriptwriter who penned the original script. How was this different experience? Did it make it more challenging or more relaxing for you?

I must say that in this case, I had the possibility to express myself from the very beginning, because we were all working together and having meetings from the start. We knew the target of this movie was going to be young girls and so we wanted to have a female writer, but I was always able to express my own opinion about how I wanted the film to be like. So, I have to say that having somebody else writing for me actually removed the stress and it all was just very very fun. Because when I write the script myself, sometimes I go berserk! But this time it was supposed to be something to have fun with, it is an entertaining film and I think we were really able to come along with it. This time I just had fun, in comparison with other times where if I am the writer I get lost, but this time there was no sense of danger, no sense of battle with myself, just having fun shooting the movie!

Next project?

It will not be a comedy but something regarding social issues and I hope I will be able to show it here in Udine!

About the author

Adriana Rosati

On paper I am an Italian living in London, in reality I was born and bread in a popcorn bucket. I've loved cinema since I was a little child and I’ve always had a passion and interest for Asian (especially Japanese) pop culture, food and traditions, but on the cinema side, my big, first love is Hong Kong Cinema. Then - by a sort of osmosis - I have expanded my love and appreciation to the cinematography of other Asian countries. I like action, heroic bloodshed, wu-xia, Shaw Bros (even if it’s not my specialty), Anime, and also more auteur-ish movies. Anything that is good, really, but I am allergic to rom-com (unless it’s a HK rom-com, possibly featuring Andy Lau in his 20s)"

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