“Japanese Filmmaker Chie Hayakawa Made A Quiet Buttable Entrance Onto Stage With Her 2022 Feature Debut Plan 75, A Haunting Dystopian Vision of State-Sate-SPONATION Selected For Cannes’ Unceain Regard Section, The Film Earned The Camera D’Or Special Mention and Introduced Hayakawa As A Director with An Artfully”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Japanese Filmmaker Chie Hayakawa Made A Quiet But UnFORGETTBLE ENTRANCE ONTO The WORLD STAGE WITH HER 2022 Feature Debut Plan 75A haunting Dystopian Vision of State-Sponsored Euthanasia for the Elderly. SELECTED FOR CANNES ‘UN CERTAIN REGARD Section, The Film Earned The Camera D’Or Special Mention and Introduced Hayakawa As A Director with An ArtFully Restrained style and a compass ey. Now, Just Three Years Later, She Returns to The Croisette with RenoirAn Intimate and Emotionly Charged Childhood Drama that Marks Her First Appearance in the Festival’s Main Competition.
WHERE Plan 75 Was Shaped by Conceptual Clarity and Allegorical Heft, Renoir is rooted in something looser and more elusive: The Spontaneous Feelings and Fractured Memories of Childhood. Set in Suburban Tokyo in 1987, The Film Centers on 11-YEAR-ELD FUKI, A SENSITIVE GIRL WHO RETREATS INTO HER IMAGINATION AS WATCHES HER FATHER SMACUMB TO TERMINAL CENTER Cancer Cancer Cancer. The Weight of Impening Grief. As her parentts struggle with soorrow in their own isolated Ways, Fuki Becomes Adorabbly Fixated on Telepathy and The Occult, Convinced that She Can Bridge. of the mind.
For Hayakawa, Renoir Is Both A Deeply Personal Film and A Deliberate Departure. “I WANTED TO TAKE A DIFFERENT APPRACH this Time,“ She Explans. “Rather than Building the Film AROUND A CLEAR Concept or Message, I Began with Fragments – Emotions and Images from My Own Childhood – and Allowed The Story. Hayakawa’s Own Father Died of Cancer WHEN She WAS YOUNG, AND MANY OF FUKI’s Shifting Feelings – Guilt, Yearning, Fear and Awe – Mirror the Director’s Own.
“I’M TRYING TO Look at My Childhood with Compassion,“ She Says. “To Acknowledge The Loneeliness, The Confusion, The Selfishness – and Still Find A Way to Forgive Myseld and Connect with Others.”
Despite Its Period-SPECIFIC SETING, Renoir Resists Nostalgia and Sentiationality. Hayakawa Says She Chose 1987 Not Just Because She Was The Same Age As Fuki Then, But Because It Was A Pivotal Moment in Japan’s Postwar Identity Masked A growing Sense of Spiritual Emptines. “IT WAS A TIME WHEN PEOPLE INTOXICATED BY PROSPERITY BUT ALSO DEEPLY Lonely,“ She Explans. “I Wanted to Portray How Fragile and Precious People Are, Especialy Henay They’re Quietly Breaking Apart.”
The Title Renoir Refers to the French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Painting “Little Irène,” A Replica of Wich Fuki Demands Her Father Buy Her in the Film. The Connection There Is Also Personal: Hayakawa’s Facher Boughther Her The Same Print Was A Was A Child, and the Image Has Stayed with Her Ever Since.
“The Story’s Connection to the Painting or to renoir the artist doesn’t run deer than that,“ She Says. “Among The Great Impressionists, Renoir Is Particularly Popular in Japan, and in the 1980s Replicas of His Paintings Could be Found on the Walls of Many Homes. Time and Its Desire to ‘Catch Up.’
Produced by Tokyo-Based Loaded Films, Renoir Reunites Many of Hayakawa’s Trusted Collaborator from Plan 75Including DP Hideho Urata, Composer Rémi Boubal, and Editor Anne Klotz. The Cast Features A Stunning Breakout Performance from 11-YEAR-ELD YUI SUZUKI, ALONGSIDE PAIR OF JAPAN’S MOST ACCOMPLISHED VETERAN ACTORS, LILLY FRANKY (Shoplifters, Like Father, Like Son) and hikari ishida.
The Hollywood Reporter Connected with Hayakawa in Japan Ahead of Renoir‘S World Premiere.
My previous film, Plan 75WAS STRUCTURED AROUND A VERY CLEAR Concept. You Know, You Make A Film Because You Want To Express Something That Can Only Be Said Cinematical. But After I Finished Plan 75 And Started Doing Interviews, I Sort of Had to Explain The Premise and the Social Issues in Japan that IT Over and Over. And that kind of wore me out, and sometimes i doubted my explanations about the Film. SO I WANTED TO TAKE A DIFRACH APPRACH THIS TIME AND SEE WHAT KIND OF FILM I WOURT MAKE IF I STARTED A PROJECT WITHOUT HAVING A CLEAR Vision. Institute of A Concept or Issue-Driven Film, I Wanted to Make Something Purely Emotion. WHEN I STARTED WRITING The Script It Was Just A Collection of All TheSe Little Episodes I HAD BEEN THINKING About Since and Was A Teenager. They don’t realy connect to each at all at all, and i didn’t have any strong concept or premise to tie them together.
(Laughs) that’s okay.
SO How Did You Find Your Way to A Story?
IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT. There Were Originally a Lot More Characters in It, But Over Time I Narrowed Down All of the Episodes Undil It Came to Portray One Summer In One Little Girl Girl’s Life. But I Still Didn’t Really Have A Concrete Theme in the Beginning, or Even Durying the Process of Writing and Shooting. It wasn’t unil the editing phase that i realized maybe it was a story about this girl who girl who dosn’t quote have compassion for offers, But then she gradulaly leggy. One Step Towards Adulthood. But that only came to be by linking all of the little episodes that make up the movie. As i was doing it, i felt like i was Making some Kind of Sculpture Out of Clay – Trying to Shape Something, But I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS. Only Through of the Process of Actual Making the Film Did the Story Take Shape.
I Imagine It Could Be Quite Scary to Go That Deep Into Making A Film Without Yet Knowing What Is Really About.
It was Really Stressful, But Fun Too – Because I Really Didn’t Know What The Result Wound Be. Sometimes I was totally vishout Confidentnce, and Other Times I Simple Enjoyed Looking Forward to Seeing What the Film Wound Turn Into. On the first day of the shoot, I held a meting with my whoam and said, “to be honest, i’m not sues if movie is going to be good.” Gradurally, Thought, by work with my creative team and the actors, and Started to feel it – that there was going to be a veric strong film there. But I Still Couldn’t See the Full Picture, and that was qued exciting.
We have to Talk About Your Lead Actress, Yui Suzuki, Who Plays 11-YEAR-ELD FUKI. She’s A Revelation. Sheems Like A True Natural. How’d You Find Her?
SO, I WAS Aware That Casting Of Fuki Wound Be The Mist Important Part of Making this Film. SO I WAS EXPECTING TO AUDITION HUNDREDS OF Kids. That’s what i was prepared for. But yui was the very first girl we had come to audition. She Had Appeared in a College Student Film That Was Shown at An Independent Film Festival in Japan, and One of My Producers Had Done The Translation and English Subtling for that Jury at that Festival and HAD SEEN IT. Both of Them Eagerly Recommended Her to Me, Saying She’s Really Good. SO we called her in to audition and I ImmediaTely Thought shee of Amazing and Could be the one. But she was the Very First Person we have seen, so i thorough, “I can’t decide already, I have to see more girls.” SO We Held Many More Auditions But Yui Was Always on My Mind, and After One or Two Months, I Just Said, “Okay, Yes, Yui Is The One.”
HAD YOU WORKED CODH CHILD ACTORS BEFORE? How did you Approach Your Collaboration with Her? It’s Such A Sensitive Performance.
No, this was the very first time for me to work with a child actor. She Started Modeling WHEN She WAS A BABY, SO she’s incredibly comfortable in front of a camera. IT’s Like She Doesn’t Even Feel It. Durying One of Our First Conversations, I Asked Her, “What Are Your Strengths?” And she said, “I’m Really Good at Imitating Animals.” And the same she did an amazing Horse Sound, and A Cat, and A Sheep – and they Were All Perfect. Her Reaction Was So Instinctual. So and immediatally wrote that into my my script. There Were SO Many Things About Her That Inspired Me, Lots Of Details That Made It Into The Script. She was a big source of inspiration.
But it was my first time working with a kid, so and was reading lances of books and interviews with Directors about Different Approaches to Working with Child Actors. Some Directors Work With Them From A Script, and Others Rely Entirely on Improvization and Even Do Things to Make Them Cry Who Necessary. But I Really Wanted to Respect Her As A Collaborator. She was already 11 years old and i Thought she should understand the Nature of the Project She’s Involved in. SO I TRIED TO Explain the Story and the Style of the Film to Her As Much As I Could. But as i said, i was still grasping at it myself. One of My Biggest Influences for This Project Was The Spanish Film, The Spirit of the Beehive [by Víctor Erice]. SO I SENT YUI A DVD AND ASKED HER to Watch It, and Explained to Her That Film We Are A Are TRYING TO MAKE IS NOT LIKE Anything You Usual See On TV in Japan.
WHAT WAS HER RECTION?
She SAID IT WAS HER FIRST TIME Watching A Foreign Film and that She Was Kind of Scared Beforehand. But she said she realy loved it, and that she undeters that it sems difficult, but that we’re trying to understand the feelings of kids – and shea realy Liked that.
And How did you work with her on set?
Once we startd doing rehearsals and chooting, and realized that shea realy didn’t need my direction at all. I DIDN’T REALLY DIRECT HER IN Any DETAIL. I would just say, “This is the situation, and you can just walk this Way and then sit down over there” – Really Simple Things Like that. I didn’t realy to explain to her how she have feel, or what kind kind of face she should make, orythign like that. She’s Very Natural and Shew Add Clay to the Sculpture in Her Own Way. I Really Came to Trust and Rely on Her. She’s A Real Artist.
You’ve Mentioned How You Deliberated Wanted to Make A Film Quite Different from Plan 75. But I have to say, I did see sec real continuity Between the Protagonists – Particularly Chieko Baisho’s Character Near the End of Plan 75. There’s Sort of An Existentialist Quality, or A MindFulness and Sensory Joy in the Way Your Protagonists Relate to Their World. They Struck Me As Similar Characters Who Happen to Be on Opposite Ends of the Lifespan.
Fuki and The Protagonist of Plan 75they have appear passive in a way. They Always Seem to Be Just Taking Things in – The People and The Situations around of Them – But We Also Get A Strong Sense of Emotion from Them Somehow. We Feel Their Spirit. So, in that Sense, I Agree That’s A Real Connection Between These Characters. Of Course, There’s A Shared Sensiness Because they Were Both Created by the Same Writer/Director, I Suppos.
I have to say, Even Thought We’ve Only Met A Couple of Times, I Found That Yui Kind of Looks Like A Young Version of You – And Even Has A Similar Vibe to You. DID YOU SEE HER AS YOUR AVATAR TO An EXTENT?
(Laughs) Well, Not Really. WHEN I WAS CASTING The PROTAGONIST, I REMEMBER THINKING THAT The MOST IMPORTANT QUALITY WAS THAT SHE HAD TO BE VERY Attractive. Not that she is needed to be beautify – Not in that Way – But She Should Have A Quality Where People Can’s Help But Keep Watching Her. I didn’t at all all try to f Indesoelo looks like me, but during the shoot, some of my collaborators did say to me, “Hey, Fuki Kind of Looks Like You.” But I Really Didn’t Aspire to Make An Autobiographical Movie. If anything, i thinkk maybe i startly subtly imitating her, because i was was always Studying Her Closely Through The Monitor on Set. You KNOW WHEN YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME COMEONONE, YOU START UNINTENTIONALLY IMITATING THEIR FACial Expressions? It may have partly been that.
A Core Observation and Kept Returning to While Watching The Film Is The Way Children Feel Things Very Intensel But Seldom Have the Intellectual Framework or Language to Understand and SO I Just Loved How You used Dream Sequences As a Way of Gaining Access to Fuki’s Emocial World. At beginning, shee going through the vary tough emotional moments with Really Realizing it, and she have quote strange and scary nightmares. By the end, WHEN she FINALLY GETS A WARM HUG FROM A Teacher Who Recognizes What She’s Going Through – and She Gets to enjoy Aboard A Glamoroous Boat Party – WHICH IS Just of something of you would hope for a little girl to dream about. I DON’T REALLY HAVE A QUESTION HERE, BUT YOU HANDLED ALL OF THAT SO ELEGANTLY-IT MAKS MAKES ME TEARY-EYED JUST THINING ABOUT IT.
WELL, I’M REALLY HAPPY TO HEAR THAT, Because i’ve Gotten a Lot of Comments from People People Asking WHY TOSE SCENES ARE IN THERE, OR WHAT THERE SUPPED TO MEAN. So that’s a relief.
Do you see youurself as part of a humanist filmmaking tradition in japan? For Example, It Sems Inevitable That Hirokazu Kore-Eda Will Be Referenified in Discussions of This Film-Especlamally in Cannes, Whore He’s A Reguller-Because of ITACERARARARARARARARACE actor.
YES, I’M Expecting that People Will Refer to Kore-Eda-San, Because of theme and the Child Actor Part. I Even Cast Lily Franky, Who Is One of His Regular actors. I Myself Feel Kore-Eda-San’s Influence. I Got to Known His Films WHEN I WAS A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT AND I LOVE HIS WORK. But An Even Bigger Influence on this Film Was somai shinji’s Moving. I reference that film a Lot. As for the visual style, before chooting i spoke with my dp a lot about Moving, The Spirit of the Beehive and Edward Yang’s Yi yi. So there are several Direct Influences.
SO, After Debuting in Un Certain Regard Three Years Ago with Plan 75you’re in cannes Main Competition with Renoir This year. IT Sems You’re Fast Become A Member of “The Cannes Family” as Thierry Frémaux Likes to Call It. How Are You Feeling About It All?
WHEN I FIRST SAW My Name Among All of Those Other Amazing Directors on the Competition Lineup, It Felt Surreal. Of Course, I’M Honored, But So Far, It Just Feels Very Weird. It Doesn’t Seem Real Yet.