Kakera: A Piece of Our Life is Japanese writer-director MOMOKO ANDO’s first feature film.
Based on the manga Love Vibes by Erika Sakurazawa, the film follows the lives of two very different young women who meet by chance in a cafe.
The more shy college student Haru gets to know Riko, a confident medical artist, the more she starts to see life differently. But will that include dumping her two-timing boyfriend and giving her new relationship with Riko a chance?
Ando talks to film journalist Jan Gilbert about writing from dreams, seizing opportunities, and gifts from the god of filmmaking.
Riko (played by Eriko Nakamura) and Haru (Hikari Mitsushima)
MMM: In your debut feature film Kakera, one of the central characters says her profession was always in her blood because of her family’s background. Your own family’s background is the film business – your father is actor-director Eiji Okuda, and your sister is actress Sakura Ando. Does that place more pressure on your own work?
Ando: There’s always been pressure. One of the reasons I wanted to study abroad is because I felt I didn’t have any identity. Anything I do at home in Japan, people would judge me. If it’s something good then they’d just say it was because of my family; and if I did something bad then it’s like three times worse than if someone else did the same thing.
I didn’t really know who I was so I wanted to come aboard so people would treat me as myself. One of the things I wanted to say through my film Kakera was that you have to find yourself and your identity before you can love someone or be in love.
MMM: You mentioned studying abroad… you lived in London for a number of years and were a student at the Slade School of Fine Art. How do you think those experiences have fed in to your work?
Ando: It was a really good experience I had in London. I was able to meet people from very different backgrounds. I think people in England have more energy for living and power to express themselves than young people in Japan, so it did influence me a lot.
Also, as I came to study in England I could appreciate my country and my family more than if I’d stayed in Japan since I was able to see it from outside.
MMM: Kakera is your first feature. You wrote and directed the film… why don’t you tell me how it came about?
Ando: I quite often work from my dreams and since I was an art student every scene comes with a picture first, rather than the storyline. So even though I had a comic book [Love Vibes] to work from, I only read it once and then I put it into words because comics are like picture boards and I didn’t want to get distracted by that. Then I had some images that I really wanted to shoot, so I tried to cut them together so they’d make sense.
Riko at work as a medical artist
MMM: In the manga Love Vibes, which the film’s based on, Riko isn’t a medical artist. Where did the idea for that come from?
Ando: I was very lucky to find that job because I didn’t know about medical artists before. Usually when I’m working on a script I ask my friends or anyone I meet questions like ‘do you know any jobs?’ I thought Riko should be someone who has a strong identity and have a job like an engineer, someone who makes something. Then one of my friends who’s a doctor introduced me to the profession of the medical artist. When I found out I thought it was perfect.
Sometimes with films you’ve got to be lucky as well. When you’re searching for something so strongly, something always turns up. When I found out about that job it connected every character in the film together, because medical artists don’t only deal with physical loss, they also have to work with patients mentally.
MMM: What did the author Erica Sakurazawa think when she heard you were adapting her story for the cinema? And has she seen the film yet?
Ando: Yes, she has. I think she liked it very much. I don’t think she had any problem with me changing her story so much because what she wanted to say through the comic was what I wanted to say through my film, and that’s the most important bit. And as long as the film is giving the right message, she was satisfied so, it was fine. But I was a bit worried though as I changed it quite a lot! [Laughs]
MMM: Let’s talk about the film’s visual style. Did you ever think about referencing the film’s origins as a graphic novel, or were you keen to get away from those?
Ando: I wanted to get away from that actually. When I was shooting the film I was 26 years old and it was my first feature, but I didn’t want to push traditional Japanese cinematography away. Rather than pushing it away I wanted to bring it all in.
Ando was keen to get away from the film's graphic novel origins
I didn’t want to work with someone the same age as me, because we’d probably have the same sense towards pictures, and it would be boring. So I think it was good that I worked with someone older [cinematographer Hirokazu Ishii], like my father’s age, who had much more experience of traditional Japanese films.
MMM: How did former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha come to write the film’s score?
Ando: That was another gift from the god of filmmaking! When I was writing the script, I had to bring up all my memories of my youth. To do that I thought it was best to listen to what I used to listen to then. So I was listening to Smashing Pumpkins as I was a huge fan of them when I was a teenager.
And my friend was organising a private party for James Iha when he was over in Tokyo for his fashion brand, so I met him there and told him I was a big fan of his band. Then I thought, ‘oh shit, I should probably give him my name card. He might say “no” straight away, but he can’t say anything unless you try it.’
So I gave him my name card and he emailed me back. I also gave him some of my drawings because I hadn’t written the script in English. He seemed to like them and I met him over in New York and he was a really generous and nice guy. And that’s how it happened.
MMM: Tell me about the two actresses in the lead roles… were Hikari Mitsushima, who plays Haru, and Eriko Nakamura, who plays Riko, actresses you had in mind from the beginning or was there a long process of auditions?
Ando: It was very difficult to find two characters. I was auditioning for a long time but I couldn’t find the right girls for the parts because you can’t see them individually, they have to work well together as a couple. It was getting really difficult. Then I had an idea: ‘What if I cast them against type, opposite to their own character?’
Kakera was actress Hikari Mitsushima's first quiet role
Then Eriko and Hikari came in to the audition and the minute I saw them I knew this would work out. Hikari is very much like Riko, very energetic. She’s never done a quiet role in her life before Kakera. But I believe that girls particularly have both sides… so if you’re very energetic and loud and have the guts to say things to people in life, once it comes to love you can change their character.
MMM: Kakera deals with issues of gender and relationships between the sexes. How far do you feel it reflects modern-day relationships between young people in Japanese society?
Ando: Haru is meant to be a very typical young Japanese girl. They don’t have the power to say no and they can’t really express themselves. It doesn’t mean that they are weak inside, they are probably quite strong inside, but they are always worried about what other people will think of them. They’re locked in their identity and find it hard to find out who they are and so tend to do what everyone else is doing.
There is a dialogue in the film where Haru and Riko talk about the moon being full one day a month and the rest of the time it’s a crescent. I think that nobody is ever filled up or has a full moon in their hearts… probably for one day of your life it’s full, but then you start to want more and more; that’s how we live. At the same time I think that gives the energy and the power to live, so what I wanted to say in the film was that the two girls are trying to step forward in life.
MMM: I hear you’ve already written your next film. What’s it about?
Ando: It’s going to be original and it’s from my experiences. I used to look after my grandmother for 8 years and I really think the Japanese government is horrible towards old people. They don’t really care about them at all. So the film’s a road movie.
It’s about one young girl who works as a home-care. One problem happens – I won’t explain it all – and she goes around different cities and meets lots of different old people. Again it’s about filling the pieces of loneliness in your life.
MMM: So you’re drawing more on your personal experiences this time, rather than your dreams?
Ando: It’s both. What I see in a dream, I guess, is very personal; something I don’t even realise myself always comes up while you’re sleeping. It’s not something you’re conscious of during the day, then you realise what you’ve been feeling or thinking while you were sleeping.
So it’s going to be very personal, and some stuff that I don’t even want to remember. But I have to open up all these feelings. That’s the least responsibility you should be taking when you create something.
KAKERA: A PIECE OF OUR LIFE IS ON DVD NOW
