Music

If there is one industry more grueling that the movie industry it is the music industry. I have a great respect for musicians as they have a talent and skill I will never master. I took guitar lessons when I 13 and after a year and half and I could acomplish was “Old McDonald Had a Farm”—besides, I have terrible stage fright so when it came to playing the children’s song in front of a group of people it was a disaster.

Music is an important aspect of movie making. Not many people notice when they watch a movie, but music is used through roughly 75% of the film. And that’s one of the true joys of working as a filmmaker, you get to work with so many different artistic mediums and meld them into one larger project. In my experiences, I’ve had the opportunity to use both a composer to do an original score for me as well as use licesed songs from bands and musicians. With Ashita we’re using some brilliant music from some brilliant bands. We have some great rock songs from The Zoobombs and Super Girl Juice and some wonderful mood music from Dr. Draw.

I have enormous respect for all three bands. My first rule when looking for music for a project is respect. I must respect the band or the musician. I have to feel like a connection with their work, which is normal, because a connection with their work means that their music will also connect with my work. They way I know that they connect is simple. I usually go for a walk and listen to their music on my iPod and if while I’m walking I picture scenes from my movie to the music, it means we’ve connected. I am a filmmaker that likes to use music as part of the scene, I believe that music can help tell your story.

So good, now I’ve connected to the music. It works for my movie, what next? The what next is the complex legal part. You need permission and liceneses and lots of wonderful signatures in order to use a 3 minute masterpiece in your movie. If you new to filmmaking, get used to this fast. Because I respect musicians, I know that their life is difficult sometimes and they starve for their art more than any filmmaker or actor that I’ve ever met.

To be honest, whith you, when you’re a chubby Canadian-Italian making a movie in Japanese you attract more than one skeptic stare. With Ashita I’ve been blessed with musicians who understand what I am trying to do. Actually the two Japanese bands, Super Girl Juice and The Zoobombs did not skoff or laugh at my idea of making a film in Japanese, infact both bands embraced the idea and particpated whole heartedly. Dr. Draw a Canadian band whose comptemporary violin sounds give the movie the added mood the movie needs, is growing in popularity with a number of TV appearances from Breakfast Television to Canada AM—they were fabulous with the idea of Ashita as well.

I have also had the good fortune to get to know all of these bands on a personal level. DON Matsuo, the front man for The Zoobombs, and I share a great interest in books an literature and we’ve had long conversations about life as an artist, we are both excited to work together again soon. Sayaka, the lead singer from Super Girl Juice is a touching woman. She is humbled by the idea of her music being used in a movie to the point that she cried when I showed her some test scenes with her music in it. Eugene Draw, the front man (and vert a talented violinst) from Dr. Draw digs Japanese movies and was super enthusiastic about participating in this movie, I’ve been talking a lot to their manager Murray who, even though busy with booking Dr. Draw in shows all over the world, shows me respect and has put a lot of faith into project.

In fact all the bands have put a lot of faith in Ashita. I won’t disappoint them.

-MJ

This Movie Has Been Modified From its Original Version

I was asked the oddest question the other day, when discussing my work as a filmmaker; someone actually asked me if I were to remake a film, which one would it be.

I was speechless; I really had no clue what to say. Because it’s not really something I had ever given thought to. Subsequently, it prompted me to give thought to the question. The answer: I don’t think I’d ever do a remake. In fact, "remake" is an old term; the word of the week in Hollywood is now "reinterpretation". This is what studios seem to be doing all over the place; from Superman Returns to the JJ Abrams Star Trek prequel/re-imaging of the franchise. Now don’t get me wrong, in some cases these reinterpretations/re-imaginings/remakes actually work. In the case of Batman Begins it gave new life to a franchise of films that spiraled into sheer lunacy. Tim Burton had made two excellent films with Batman and Batman Returns, then Joel Shumacher took over and things went downhill very quickly. And after the awful Batman & Robin the franchise was put to rest. With Batman Begins, they decided to just start everything all over again and go a very different path, which worked. Hey, what can I say? Sometimes movies studios get things right. The same thing went for Casino Royale many 007 fans were very, very jaded about the direction the films were going. The last few Pierce Brosnan films felt like giant commercials with action scenes intercut between all the product placement. You could almost picture Barbara Broccoli sending hundreds of emails out to every large corporation in the world selling product placement for the new Bond movie, then trying to talk a screenwriter into scripting a story around all the commercials. It was so painful for a lot of fans to watch scene upon scene upon scene of logos, brands etc. What I love about the Brosnan era Bond was that the man himself, Pierce Brosnan was actually complaining about the lack of quality story wise. I guess somebody listened, because Casino Royale did everything right, it had a great story, classic elements of filmmaking, good action, no abundance of psychotic gadgets (no invisible car—thank you movie gods) or product placement. And to boot, they re-started the franchise from scratch.

It’s a trend that can make money and give new credit to a franchise that has taken advantage of fans. When it’s a franchise that will spew many sequels (hopefully of good quality) you can get away with the re-imaginings and re-inventions and starting over from scratch.

What is slightly more frightening is the one off remakes, the most sacrilegious of which would be the 1998 remake of Psycho by Gus Van Sant. This one really didn’t sit well with me, I can accept remakes of popular older movies, but a Hitchcock masterpiece… um, no. Hitchcock’s Psycho is a film that changed the way we see movies—don’t touch it. What was really ridiculous about Van Sant’s remake was that he chose to remake it shot for shot from Hitchcock’s. I am not a hardcore cinema purist, but most people will agree there is line that should not be crossed. True classics are one of them. Another upsetting remake was Jonathan Demme’s 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. In 1974 Francois Truffaut was invited by Warner Bros. to remake Casablanca, he outright refused and stated: “You want to remake Casablanca? Why not hire someone to puts arms on Venus De Milo.”

The Hollywood recently reporter announced that a remake of yet another Hitchcock classic, The Birds is planned to be released in 2009 (rumored to be in charge of this is the one, the only--gasp--Michael Bay--god help us all).

As a filmmaker (who is far from making classic cinema) I would be upset if someone remade something I did, or retold I story I’ve already told. If I like a movie very much, I wouldn’t pay homage to it by remaking it, I would promote it and discuss why its valuable to the cinema world. Hitchcock made one remake in his life: The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956 which was a remake of his own movie of the same tile from 1934. The sad truth is that somebody will always think remaking classic films is a good idea, especially in this new era of the big studios, much like in the 1980s when studios took it upon themselves to colorize black and white classics, that was a real mess—that got a strong push from Ted Turner who felt people of the 1980s had no patience to watch movies in black and white (he was also responsible for Pan & Scan videos) so they went and colorized a number of classics including: The Most Dangerous Game, It’s a Wonderful Life, Casablanca, Psycho (which Hitchcock chose to make in black and white), but all that ended when American Film Technologies (funded by Ted Turner) announced they had plans to colorize Citizen Kane of which the rights were in dispute after Orson Welles died (he owned all exclusive rights to the film until his death), but there was a huge outcry with plans to colorize the classic film, because on his death bed Welles told his friends: “Don’t let Ted touch my movie with his little crayons.”

On Directing

Jean Renoir once said: "A director only makes one movie in his life. Then he breaks it down and makes it again." Though my three films: The Meatball Story, Truant Cafe and Ashita seem vastly different, they explore the one theme in life I see as a constant. That human beings, no matter how different we think we are, no matter how we think, in essence we are all they same. We all smile, we are hurt and when we are each presented with the dark we'd all rather not face it alone.

I am fascinated with human ability to face the worst of life alone and survive. I am fascinated with the secret pain and fear that people hide. And this is reflected in my writing, actually its also reflected when I write. I usually write when I am at my worst, or when a situation is at its worst and I want to talk about it. My first film, The Meatball Story, I wrote over the course of three afternoons in a downtown Montreal food court. I had no money and used my last few dollars to buy a pad and a pack of pencils. Sitting there, angry at the world, sad because I was broke and didn't know where I was going in life, I wrote The Meatball Story, a story about greed and selfishness. Truant Cafe was written in two days in a cafe in downtown Montreal. I had been living in Toronto for a year, but I had come off a terrible relationship with a terrible girl and was very angry at how modern society sees dating and relationships, so I sat in the cafe and wrote Truant Cafe a story about a relationship gone wrong and about getting even. Ashita came at a happy time in my life, I had been married for almost a year to my lovely wife Izumi. We got married in Japan and I fell in love with the country and the culture. I knew I wanted to work on a Japanese project. I thought it would be a wonderful experiment to try. I even expressed the idea to Kyoko, my mother in law, who is a theatrical producer, director and actor in Kyushu, Japan. I told her I would like to write a play for her--this is how the seed was planted in my head. For a while I tried writing a few stories that didn't pan out, I even tried adapting The Meatball Story into Japanese by changing it to The Gyoza Story, but that didn't work either. I felt terrible... I had never been this happy before, so I could not write. So I put my iPod on and went for a walk and I listened to music and some memories came back to me and I was inspired and Ashita was soon thereafter born. My inspiration was not my pain or anger, it was the pain in anger people who live in a big city see everyday.

What does all of this have to do with Renoir's quote? Well, I'm getting to that. As a director of these three films I also had a different approach to these topics of the human condition. I made The Meatball Story with the intention of proving to world that I could do it, that a feature film could be made in little time and for next to no money. Of course, when I was making it, I was positive it was going to win at least three Oscars and affect the cinema world in a way much like Citizen Kane or at least Clerks did. My second kick at the movie making can was Truant Cafe and my approach here was very personal, I wanted to public humiliate someone and I was going to do it with this movie. I was very angry through the whole process of writing, shooting and editing the movie. That's really not a good way to be in any process, especially making a movie. Again, it was going to win three Oscars and change the world. With Ashita, my approach is very different, because I see it as an experiment I can have fun making it. I can play and try things, because after all a white Canadian making a Japanese language film in the city of Toronto with and entirely Japanese cast can only be described as an experiment.

The themes to all three films are on the most basic level, the same, however I am re-imagining them in a new way with each project. As for the Oscars, well with Ashita I want to see the completed experiment more than anything. I am curious and slightly weary of how Japanese audiences will react.

I doubt my fascination with humanity will ever cease. I will be a father in a few months, this is an experience and joy I am looking forward to. I am sure that I will be able to see life in a beautiful and new way through my child's eyes. Who knows maybe one day I will make a kids movie. How cool would that be?

The Happy Accident

The best things in life are free. I think that’s a saying from the 1950’s. Either way it is true. Some of the best things in Ashita were not planned, not even thought up they were what I like to call, “Happy Accidents.” They are also some of my favorite moments in the film. Not that I don’t like the scripted moments, because I do and some of they are clearly brilliant. The actors worked so hard to make the scenes unforgettable, which is why when the happy accidents happen it adds an extra layer of cool to the movie. I have no idea how many of these happy accidents will make it into the final cut, but I will probably include them on the Special Features part of the DVD at the very least.

The first happy accident I remember is in the Three Girls story when Miki, Ayumi and Yuki all run into each other and encounter the Mystery Woman. We were shooting this scene in a Chinatown back alley, next to a parking garage and the acting was top tier. I remember Tomomi (Yuki) was doing a great job of panicking as Maki (Mystery Woman) was approaching, Izumi (Miki) was trying to help and Minami (Ayumi) was swearing and annoyed. The whole scene was very chaotic, I love it as they were all talking over each other and disoriented—the coolest thing happened, as I was doing camera, I was filming from Mystery Woman’s point of view and I was walking towards the three chaotic girls and as I was doing that, a car came out of the parking garage behind me with its headlights blaring right on the three girls, giving them this creepy look and making seem that it was coming from Mystery Woman. The scene was wonderful and the happy accident of the headlights adds an extra sense of creepiness to the shot. I did not see it until I was watching the footage with Ashita’s editor Andy. When we saw it we both kind of smiled and thought it was pretty cool.

Sometimes, you’re shooting, you see something and it ignites a cinematic spark and an improvised scene happens. Ashita has a lot of outdoor scenes with people all over the city. One night, as we’re shooting the Teddy Bear story’s scenes where Sayaka walks through the city with her stuffed bear talking and thinking to herself. This was easy enough for Yoshiko (Sayaka) as it basically involved her walking around downtown Toronto, it wasn’t very challenging (other than the cold weather) and did not involve a lot of takes. To make things go even faster I scouted a lot of our locations with assistant director Yoko Omura a few days earlier and we had a really good idea of what we wanted to do and how long it would take. While shooting that night we walked from one location to another (I like to keep them close because I can’t afford Teamsters), but we took a wrong turn and walked past a park that was covered in fog, it was a brilliant sight. Parallel lights on both sides of the parks walk way, with a thick fog covering the path—I couldn’t resist, I had to shoot there. The cinema gods had made this just for my shoot. Yoshiko ran to other end of the path and I put my tri-pod in the middle of the path and I yell “Action”. What emerged was a beautiful, mood shot of Yoshiko walking out of the fog carrying her bear. It will be one of the most talked about shots in the film. When Andy, Izumi and I watched this footage all of us were excited. I am certain this shot will make into the film, it’s an almost perfect shot that happened completely by accident. I am so glad we took that wrong turn.

While shooting The Wonderful Elton Fuji with Daisuke as Elton, we had another happy accident, which was really a lot of fun for me. The scene, again, involved Daisuke walking down the street. For this particular sequence I had chosen a backstreet in Toronto’s financial district, it was located near the old courthouse building. We did a few takes of Daisuke walking up and down the street and then on one of the last ones, over my shoulder I hear a voice spew: “Hey man, you makin’ a movie? You makin’ a movie man? I love movies.” I turn around to see a creepy looking guy holding a big wad of cash in his left hand. He smiles at me. Of course when presented with awkward situations, I love to poke them with a stick and see what happens.

“Yes we are,” I say.

“Hey man, that’s cool. I love movies, man.” He says, his grin getting bigger. “What’s this movie called?”

“Ashita,” I say. “It’s Japanese. We’re making a Japanese movie.”

“Japanese, man, that’s dope yo!” He says. “Hey buddy man, you wanna shoot in my parking lot, go ahead its
all yours. Yo, we got a lotta nice cars in here. We got beemers man, a benzo or two man, yo I think I even saw a Ferrari in there man.”

Hmmm… free, well lit location in downtown Toronto, no questions asked. “Sure, that sounds great. We’d love to shoot in your parking lot.”

“One condition though, man,” he looks at Daisuke, points and smiles. “I want the movie star’s autograph.”

Humbly Daisuke replies, “Me?”

“Yeah, man. Give me your autograph right here,” he says to Daisuke as he hands him a hundred dollar bill.

Taking the hundred dollar bill Daisuke says, “You want me to sign this?”

“Yeah man, that way its worth a lot in more ways than one.”

So Daisuke autographed the hundred dollar bill. And we shot in the parking lot, what we shot was Daisuke sitting in the attendant’s booth sketching and drawing. It may sound like nothing really, but it adds an area of depth to the Elton Fuji character by giving the impression that he has a job. The character is a struggling artist, but by giving him the job in the parking lot we now get see that no matter what he does, he can escape into his art.

The latest happy accident was while shooting Fireflies with Leona. The scene was short and involved a few exteriors of Etsu (Leona) in Toronto’s harbor front district. These exteriors were coming at the tail end of a weekend of marathon shooting. Friday night we shot interiors where Etsu meets the half sister she never knew she had Ami (Tomoko Takahashi). The location was Ami’s house and we spent a few hours shooting outside the house, where Leona’s character was debating with herself over a few things. Tomoko was nice enough to help me out with lighting here, when then went inside to shoot a very intense and well performed scene. We wrapped that shoot at about 2:00 AM, I quickly cleaned up and went to sleep as I had an early meeting with another location the next day. Saturday, starting at about 3:00 PM we shot some interiors at a fancy downtown hotel room. We shot straight without breaks until about 7:30 PM, Leona, Izumi and I went to eat then Leona and I hit the streets do a few exteriors. By the time were done the exteriors it was nearly 11:00 PM. Both Leona and I were tired, very tired. As we were walking back to the hotel (like I said I can’t afford Teamsters) we walked under a small tunnel near Union Station and we saw the coolest thing, a man with an electric guitar and amp, playing a heavy metal solo in the middle of the tunnel. There’s traffic going by in both directions and this guy is busting it loose like Slash with his hair flying in the back wind of the cars driving by.

I see this and I stop walking. I had to film this, there was no way I could leave this scene behind and not immortalize in the lens of my camera. Leona is wondering what the hell I am doing as I giggle and take the lens cap off Josephine (that’s my camera’s name). I need to film this guy. As I begin to roll, he decides to take a break. A few seconds pass and he notices me with the camera across the road.

“Hey man, you wanna film a killer solo?” He asks. My reply is a simple thumbs up and with lightning speed he breaks into a wicked solo and I notice how great the acoustics in the tunnel as I film. It was really cool! Cars were wooshing by ad this guy was going nuts on his six-string.

Leona and I crossed the road and we filmed few shots of her walking by this golden sight. Leona seemed a little confused as to why I was so thrilled by the man with the guitar and the answer is simple: You can’t buy shots like this. No matter how odd they seem, these shots, however accidental they are, they just seem to work for the film.

I guess it is true…

3 GIRLS

I’ve been thinking a lot about the one story I have yet to write about in this fine blog. 3 Girls is the first story I wrote in Ashita. Of all the stories it the one with the biggest cast and it’s the most complex story. It combines some traditional Japanese cinematic images with some hints of my nostalgic memories of my time in Tokyo.

The story (and the movie) begins with Yuki, running towards the camera in complete fear. “Help me,” she screams. She’s being followed by a mysterious figure in white. The mystery woman’s chase of Yuki comes to an end in an alley where hell is about to be unleashed.

Meanwhile Miki and Ayumi are hard at work at the local Asian karaoke bar, they complain about work and money and are expecting another slow night. Then suddenly a mysterious white figure appears in the bar.

Somehow, Miki, Ayumi and Yuki’s paths all cross and are linked by this mystery woman. These three girls are cursed…

Of the six stories in Ashita, this will be the scariest. The acting, again in this story is top notch. Yuki is played by the wonderfully athletic Tomomi Kataoka. I’ve never put an actor through more physically trying scenes than I did Tomomi. I asked to run down the same alley in fear about 35 times in cold November and December weather. Lucky for me she once was a lacrosse player and was a wonderfully good sport about the whole thing, especially when she ran a hole through her boots. Mystery Woman, who can instill fear into all, was played by Maki O., who I commend for having the most complex make-up job (she’s painted entirely in white) and who wears only a thin white kimono (again in November and December). Though people think her acting job may have been easy because she has no dialogue, I disagree. To be able to remain so stone faced and emotionless to create a frightening atmosphere is not an easy task. Maki, too, was a good sport and we all had fun walking down the street with her while she was completely painted white. Or walking into a Starbucks to order coffee and warm up and there is was in the middle of the café all in white.

In the bar, Miki is played by my beautiful wife Izumi Di Rocco, whose portrayal of a down on her luck bar maid is dead on. Her younger, more flamboyant, pink haired counterpart, Ayumi, is played wonderfully by Minami Kubota. Minami is a sweet, young girl who caught us all by surprise with the viciousness of her acting. There is a certain scene when Ayumi yells at her boss (played by Takashi Fujita) it is, to put it simply, fantastic. I never thought such a sweet looking girl could be so visceral. It’s brilliant. Izumi and Minami have wonderful chemistry that gives them a natural big sister/little sister relationship. And when their characters cross paths with Yuki it is what is sure to be one of the most chaotic scenes in Ashita—and one of the most frightening.

I had a lot of fun shooting 3 Girls. It was full of wonderful surprises and nice little moments that I always smile when I remember them. The first was the pink hair for Minami. Sometimes casting against type works, anyone who met Minami would have thought her perfect to play a sweet, innocent girl (many suggested her for Sayaka in the Teddy Bear story) but my gut told me to put her as the bitchiest character in the movie. Somehow I knew it would be right. But her natural look was too sweet, we needed to give her a more an edge, like she just stepped out of the hippest club in Shinjuku. So I sat down with Ashita’s make-up artist Masayo and the first thing I said is that I wanted her to have colored hair, red, purple, blue. I don’t know something. Pink was the first color we tried and once I saw it, there was no turning back. We matched Izumi to look as flamboyant but with a more conservative, older look. We gave Izumi dark eye make-up, long nails and a big white feather boa over a fur coat and Chinese dress. Both girls looked awesome and carried the right kind of attitude for their parts. Izumi had experience working in a bar, so she had not trouble getting into the mood of the character, Minami took method acting very serious and she got a job in a karaoke bar for a few weeks just to garnish the experience.

When I watched the footage for 3 Girls is feels like it was a much larger shoot than it actually was. Though it was the one of my more open sets where anyone was allowed to watch, we had so much fun shooting that it doesn’t feel big to me. Some of Ashita’s most complex shots were pulled off with almost no difficulty, combined with the dedication of girls willing to freeze to death or run up and down the same alley 35 times so I could get enough coverage. For me, 3 Girls, was a completely new way of shooting. I did not preparation, no story boarding or shot listing. It was decided on set at the time of shooting—and it was deiced quickly because it was some nights it was so damn cold. We did a lot of rehearsals, but I planned no shots—which for me was difficult, because once the actors get the mood of the scene I spend most of the second half of rehearsal writing shots and shot lists. But for 3 Girls, I decided everything on set which was a refreshing experiment that I may or may not repeat based on the circumstance.

I am avoiding giving you more information about the story or the finer points of its meaning simply because I want you to be surprised. 3 Girls, like all of Ashita’s stories has a strong message about loneliness, however there is significantly more metaphors, mixed in with powerful imagery in this particular story, that should leave audience’s heads spinning to find the answers to the questions this story asks.

Thoughts From A Master

Today my daily glance at the online version of the Toronto Star newspaper, proved to be educational. The most read stories were, of course, stuff about the war on terror, the Toronto Transit Commission raising the price of subway and bus fares and the fact the McDonalds is revamping its look to give itself a sophisticated (I use this word deliberately for my lovely wife Izumi and the always joyful Kelly—who teaches me Japanese and to whom I teach English and to whom I instructed to use the word at least 3 times this week) new look. Though a sophisticated looking McDonalds, with leather sofas, built in fireplaces and pendant lighting may be interesting reading, what I found lower down the page was interesting article about one of my favorite filmmakers, Woody Allen.

The Toronto International Film Festival is going strong until this weekend and like every year it attracts its fair share of big stars. When I attend screenings, I usually like to stay for a conversation with the director after the film. The Q & A’s are always a lot of fun. I was on the fence about seeing Woody Allen’s new movie Cassandra’s Dream at the film fest for the sheer reason that I know it will get general release and I will be able to see it in theatres before Christmas. The only reason I was thinking about going to see it at the festival was that Allen would be there to possibly introduce the film and have Q & A afterwards—a rare public appearance by Woody Allen outside of a New York Knicks game is always a treat. In the end, I opted not to get tickets for Cassandra’s Dream but I am happy that my favorite newspaper was able to post this gem of a story. Basically Woody Allen calls himself a lazy filmmaker. He is quoted as saying: "I'm not a dedicated filmmaker, I'm lazy. To me, making a film is not the be-all end-all of my life. I want to shoot the film and go home and get on with my life… I said to myself after the first film, this is ridiculous, I don't want to work to get a shot and miss the basketball game. I don't want to have to work late, I don't want to have to kill myself on the weekend, I don't want to have to sit through rehearsals endlessly or shoot the extra 10 takes to get the perfect moment."

Allen makes a lot of sense in what he says on a number of levels. First, as a husband and soon to be father I have been conflicted over that past few weeks about future film projects. Yesterday in an e-mail exchange with my good friend Luc I expressed to him my thoughts about future projects. Certainly films are in my blood and I will never be able to put them out of my life, also I a have a creative soul so I will be unable to function without some kind of creative outlet. But making a film takes up a huge chunk of your life, lucky for me, my wonderful Izumi has been my partner and biggest supporter throughout this past year in making Ashita. And honestly, sometimes I have not made it easy for her. Not only was I making Ashita, I had also agreed to film and edit two live shows and a concert. This on top of making a feature film was pushing my limits. There were times when I felt like I was losing my mind. There were times when I wanted to shut down the whole production without caring what the cast and crew would think. I had suffered a depression a few years ago and I could feel another one coming, so I just wanted to stop everything and live a “normal” life. Then the most interesting thing happened. I took a vacation. I went to Las Vegas with my one my best friends Andrew, each year we make it a point to take our annual golf/gambling trip. Andrew is hard working civil servant with three beautiful kids and we’ve been friends since college. Our week in Vegas, full of booze, golf and black jack proved to be a welcome change from costume tests, camera tests, rehearsals and marketing meetings. It was what I needed to recharge my batteries. As it my as my private time with Izumi at the film festival. We are seeing five movies in ten days, we’ve has a date on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and also this coming weekend. We are spending valuable time together. Try not to take this out of context, but the time I have with my wife, my family and my friends is more valuable to me than making my movie. Woody Allen is right. Not that making Ashita is not important or does not mean anything, but too many times in the past did my personal suffer for my movies and it was truly not worth it. I am more than a filmmaker. I am a friend, a husband and soon a father and I cannot picture myself, nor do I want to say, telling my child we can’t play today because daddy has to finish his movie. No… Never. Daddy will play first, then make his movie. I love everyone who’s ever worked with me on any of my projects and I have deep respect and admiration for all of them and I am the first to tell them family comes first. I welcome husbands or wives on set, I will never ask someone to choose my movie over a loved one. I accommodate their needs for family events and personal events, because I would be foolish to think (and I have been in the past) that my film is greater in their lives than their families.

Allen makes another good point, though he hides in it in his quote about being lazy. He says he does not shoot a more than three takes, he does not wait for the so called “Perfect Take”. Again here we see the genius of Woody Allen who is heralded as one of modern cinema’s great directors. He is a man actors line up to work for. I think he makes a point in doing fewer takes, he’s realistic on an independent level. This is something all budding film students should learn. Actor Collin Farrell noted he did as many takes in Allen's latest film as he did in one scene of the film version of Miami Vice. For a big budget movie like Miami Vice it may be okay to got the extra perfectionist route. When you’re working with almost no money or very little time you have to make due with what you got. I am not saying cut corners, especially not with acting. Andy and I were discussing this last week, he complimented in saying: “You get things done.” Which is the first rule of I go by, get it done. Do it well, but if you spend too much time on one shot or one scene, you will lose perspective of the greater picture: The film. Last night I had rehearsal for Fireless, Ashita’s newest story. Leona and our newest movie star Tomoko Takahashi were over to rehearse and they will agree that they way I work is for the bigger picture, if I spend too much worrying about small things, the bigger picture will suffer, which I why I allow actors to change their dialogue and sometimes pick their own costumes. I give them freedom to move about how they like. The way I work with actors is simple, I tell them the overall picture, what the meaning is, what I feel the scene is about and them I let them lose to play and explore, this gives me greater performances from the actors because they have more freedom. I’ve seen far too many directors micro-manage (or micro-direct if you prefer) their actors. They tell their actors to hold a fork in a specific way or tie their shoe in such a manner, now if these things affect the bigger picture then yes do it, but if it’s just a character tying a shoe or eating dinner, than who cares how they do it. What Woody Allen is saying, is instead of trying to get that perfectly framed shot try to worry about the story and the movie instead. Get it done and care about it, but not too much—just enough to make your life fun.

Thank you Mr. Allen.

Reflections of Tomorrow

The Toronto International Film Festival is upon the city again. The lines are long to buy tickets to the various world premieres; folks will all of a sudden be shopping in the posh Yorkville area of downtown to hopefully run into a celebrity in the Prada store or Holts. Me, I’m in it for the films. I will be seeing five films this year which is more than I’ve seen at the last two festivals combined. Am I excited? Certainly the prospect of seeing 5 movies over 2 weeks in a room full of film enthusiasts (who else would pay roughly $27 to see movie?) is very intriguing and puts me in a reflective mood.

I’ve taken a break from Ashita over the next two weeks in order to attend the industry calls one of the most important film festivals in the world, I call it a giant geek-a-thon. Andy is also taking a break from editing as he is braver and maybe richer than me and will be seeing roughly 25 movies or so. This well deserved time off will allow me the chance to do a number things; 1) Have five dates with my wife in two weeks. 2) Watch some of modern cinema’s greatest master works 3) Seek inspiration 4) Reflect further on my new film Ashita.

Like I said, I’m in a reflective mood.

Last night I had an old friend over for dinner. Frank B. Kermit and his future bride were over to celebrate their wedding this coming weekend. Frank and I have a long history he is the one who gave me my first directing opportunity on a TV show in what feels like a century ago. Frank, who today, is a successful author, radio host and public speaker is a good friend of mine and has work on my two previous features, The Meatball Story and Truant Café, and my TV pilot, Cinema Fix. I mentioned to him that Ashita is very different than my previous work and that it feels a lot different making this one that the others. The Meatball Story, my first feature, I originally wrote as a play and wanted to present it as such, but theatre being more unstable than the film industry it was not to be. So not wanting to put months of rehearsals to waste, I decided to shoot it as film. It was shot in 6 days in black and white in my cousin’s tiny restaurant in downtown Montreal. And to be honest, none of us really knew what were doing. Not that Meatball is a bad movie, on the contrary, it’s a lot of fun to watch because it’s so inhibited and free. Someone once called it a “B-Movie Midnight Cult Classic” which I take as a great compliment. Truant Café, was a much bolder project with a very high ambitions. Truant Café reunited with not only Frank, but also Nina-Rose Singh and the versatile Anthony Colace. We did a complete 180° turn with Truant, I was aiming to make a very dark and angry psychological thriller. As much as the film was different from Meatball, it had a lot of similarities. Truant Café was shot in roughly nine days with a lot of the same cast and crew and I wrote the script over a weekend while visiting Montreal.

I am extraordinarily proud of both films and the excellent work involved. But both films suffer a little due to the time constraints imposed on us by the locations and the lack of experience. Again, both films, I think, are excellent but with my new film Ashita I’ve opted to do things a little differently. The biggest example of that is that 1 year after we began shooting, we are not yet complete. Am I afraid of falling into film limbo and not knowing when to stop? Of course I am, but I trust the people around me and the people I work with. I have a brilliant wife whose support and logic make her a great producer. I have an editor, who is not afraid to tell me I’m going overboard or too far. I am not saying Ashita will be a perfect film, it will be yet another experience that leads to many more. And the influence of Meatball and Truant hand heavy in this movie, from a cameo appearance by Anthony Colace to using the experience and past mistakes as a tool for progress. In Truant Café I had to make a very difficult decision to cut out my original ending and shoot a new one almost a year later. It is a very humbling experience when you first present the scenario to all those involved. Explaining to your cast and crew, who have all worked so hard and believed in your project enough to follow you and work on it, that you’ve changed your mind about something and need to re-shoot, is gut grinding. But it gets easier. The Meatball Story had no re-shoots and was marked with the very film school-esque attitude of: “We’ll iron out the shooting glitches in post.” Never iron out any glitches in post—it works sometimes and did so in the case of Meatball, but took almost one year to get a rough cut out, because I was “Ironing things out in post.” Truant Café was the first time I did a re-shoot and I am very happy with results. We re-shot the ending of the film and it gives the movie a much creepier feeling and darker undertones. With Ashita, I’ve done a number of re-shoots and I made the even harder decision to cut a character and story out of the film—I did something similar in Meatball because of length, but in Ashita the character and story did not blend well with rest of the film.

To be honest, if I had not met Frank almost 15 years ago, I would not be making Ashita today. Over the last that decade and a half I learned some valuable lessons: 1) Always treat your cast and crew well, or they will leave you. 2) If you can help it, don’t rush a shoot. 3) Nothing really gets fixed in post, do it right, it’s worth it. 3) Be honest to yourself as an artist 4) Know your limitations 5) Doing a film because you love it is the only real reason to do a film.

Was reminded of point number 5 a lot last night, and everyone whose worked on one of my projects was in it because they loved it, good or bad, they were in it to learn, play and do something interesting. The love of cinema will be present at the film festival also… But my biggest love for cinema is presented with the people who choose to work with me.

Like I said, I’m in a reflective mood.


You can check Frank out at: http://franktalks.com/

You can check Anthony out at: http://www.anthonycolace.com/

The Wonderful Elton Fuji

What would be like if you couldn’t talk? How would you express yourself? How would you let people know you existed? How would you make a difference? After all some of the world’s greatest accomplishments began with great words: “I have a dream…”, “Man will walk on the moon…” Of course other people left equally powerful marks with not only words but art. As great a man as Pablo Picasso was his true legacy in his art. Da Vinci, for all the great things he may have said, is truly remembered by his work and art.

Enter Elton Fuji, a humble Japanese man with puffy hair. He is a mute. He is an artist. Happy with his everyday life, he enjoys a peaceful existence of daily routine and art until he falls in love. The Wonderful Elton Fuji, on the surface, seems the most different of all the stories in Ashita, however upon further thought it’s easily realized how much this story belongs in the movie. Elton, played wonderfully by the diverse and talented Daisuke Takeya, is such a fragmented character. When I originally had the concept for the story, I knew immediately that I want Daisuke to play the part—I was ecstatic when he agreed to it, in fact I was not going to shoot the story unless Daisuke was in it. Now, Daisuke is an extraordinarily busy man and I am grateful and amazed that he found the time to dedicate to this part of Ashita and honestly, I am glad I wanted only him. It’s impossible to picture Elton Fuji any other way than how Daisuke played him.

I essentially created the story as a challenge to myself. Ashita’s stories are heavy on dialogue and characters that express themselves though complex monologues or conversations. I wanted to create something totally opposite, something that would really bring the same meaning but with a different approach. And so was born The Wonderful Elton Fuji. The story isn’t completely silent, there is a narrator who talks to Elton, who I see as his subconscious—the only reason I went with the narrator was to keep a certain consistency within the six stories because all the other stories have voiceover, I needed to give Elton something similar. Of course having Elton do voiceover, would be ridiculous, he’s a mute character I could not bring myself to believe that he would have voiceover, even if the voiceover is interpreted as part of his thoughts. I decided a narrator describing Elton for the audience would work better. What makes it cinematically interesting, I think, is that Elton interacts with the narrator. The essence of the story is that Elton is in love with the girl that lives across the hall from his apartment and the only way he knows how to communicate with her is through art. So draws for her, he leaves the drawings on her door, knocks and runs away. She replies with notes on his door, and thus our little, quirky love story begins.

Of all the shoots on Ashita, The Wonderful Elton Fuji was the fastest, firstly there was no lengthy dialogue so almost every frame we shot is usable and creates a necessity for less takes. I also wanted to have an improvised feeling for this story, all the camera work was hand held, I avoided the tripod with this story and I think it really gives the story a warmer feeling and it makes us feel closer to the character of Elton. Daisuke and I did very little rehearsing, we met twice before the shoot just to go over costume and a few quick ideas I had. Almost everything about this story was decided on set. I wanted to camera to play and discover things along with Elton and it really turned out nice.

The main theme of the story is communication through visual art, this is not a new concept if we look at the very famous painting The Scream by Edvard Munch, we can clearly see him communicating tormented emotion. Elton is not so dark in his work, but the message he brings out is clear beauty is best seen. Tell someone they are beautiful, they may be flattered, but they may also not believe you. If you show someone how they are beautiful that will leave a much bigger and more powerful impact. I originally envisioned The Wonderful Elton Fuji in black and white with colour sequences. Colour is something that Andy and I discussed with this story. I think if we do not go with black and white we will go with one monotone colour, meaning most of the story will have a blue or yellow filter.

The more we proceed with each of these stories in the movie, the more I see them as six dreams about tomorrow. And like dreams I want them to visually interesting. To me, Elton Fuji would be the type of dream you have while taking an afternoon nap on a warm summer day—at first you’re not sure what its about, but as it slowly moves along it becomes a warm experience that reveals a wonderful secret and when you wake up, you smile because the world looks just a little bit better.

Cream Puff Explosion

Riko, Aya, Mizuki and Yuka have been friends since childhood. They are as close as anyone can be. About five years ago or so, Riko and Yuka moved away from Japan to North America, leaving Riko and Aya behind. Ashita’s story Cream Puff Explosion (named after a band the four friends had formed) starts with Riko, Aya and Mizuki in a laundromat folding clothes. Aya and Mizuki are staying with Riko for a few says, they’ve come to town for Yuka’s wedding which is tomorrow. The three friends reminisce about old times and laugh like they used to and Riko can’t express how much she’s missed them these last five years.

The go back to Riko’s house and drink wine and talk about me, Aya wants all the dirty details about Yuka’s future husband—she wants to gossip wondering if white guys are bigger than Asian guys etc. Mizuki smirks and asks what difference does it really make, Yuka and Joey are in love and that’s all that matters.

The conversation quickly takes a turn as Riko looks distant and sad. After some prodding by her friends, she embarrassingly admits that she is in love with Joey, Yuka’s finance and that her and Joey have been sleeping together and in a relationship for over a year.

Things come crashing down from there. I will limit what I say about this particular story beyond this point. It’s pretty obvious what her friends might think or say. But the central theme, though may seem like adultery, is more about friendship and love. Riko chooses not to tell her best friend Yuka about the affair, because she does not want to hurt her. So the question is; is it better to lie to protect somebody or to tell the truth and possibly destroy them. Again, I do not pretend to know the answer to this question which is why I ask in this story. The aspect of love is involved in here as well. Riko says that her relationship with Joey is not just sex, but that they are truly in love. A number of questions pop here… is it wrong to love your best friend’s husband? Well the bible will say yes, anyone whose experienced passion through love may disagree. Sometimes you fall in love with people and you can’t control yourself, you can try, but usually you end up helpless. Besides don’t all human beings have the right to feel any way they want about anybody or anything? Riko may be selfish by choosing her happiness over her friends, but when the possibility of total loneliness is presented to you, you may be surprised at what you are willing to do to fill that void in your heart. Again, I’m not saying I’m right… I’m just saying that these questions are asked in Cream Puff Explosion. And like all stories in Ashita, CPE brings its own perspective on love, loneliness and humanity.

Riko is played brilliantly by Rumiko A. Matsuda, who when I first approached her with the story wanted to play Aya, but the more I thought about it the more Rumiko seemed a good fit for the part of Riko. One night I met her at Tim Horton’s and we discussed the possibility. Rumiko, took the script home and re-read it this time keeping the role of Riko in mind. A few days later she called me and said:

“Absolutely not. I do not want to play Riko.”

“Well then,” I said. “You better come over to my house for coffee.”

Two nights later she was over and we discussed the part. Rumiko was angry at Riko, she hated her and bluntly said that she cannot ever like a person who would do such a thing. I can understand such feelings, but I asked Rumiko not to judge Riko… in fact, I suggested that she should try to understand her. We then had a long conversation about love and loneliness, where I asked a lot of the same questions I asked above. Rumiko agreed to take another look at the character, and tried to understand Riko—to this day, Rumiko does not like Riko, but she understands her… which is fine. I am sure Anthony Hopkins, though he understands Hannibal Lectre, he probably does not like the man very much. As an actor, you need to understand and respect the character you are playing, but you do not have to like him or her.

Rumiko agreed to play the part of Riko and I was thrilled, she was joined by Sho Suzuki as Aya and Kanako Yamamoto as Mizuki. All three were stellar in their parts and really bring out the finer details of friendship. When I wrote the story and thought of these characters, I thought of my relationships with my some of my closest and oldest friends. What’s beautiful about the love of friends is that, much like a spouse, it is a chosen love. People chose to be your friends, the real friends, take the good with the bad. In my case, some of my closest friends who have known me for over a decade, accept the good and the bad, they accept my insanity and seclusion while making movies, they accept my binge drinking through the stress and my many other flaws. My true friends and my lovely wife still love me and value in my existence even when I do not. This is really what Cream Puff Explosion brings out. Riko, is in quite the terrible spot she’s admitted to lying and hurting people, she’s admitted to doing very bad things, yet her friends get angry and criticize what she’s done. However, they do not judge her and more importantly they do not abandon her. And this is the true root of friendship, it’s more than have a few beers and taking in a ball game, its being there when you’re needed, through the good but more importantly through the bad. So to my wife and my true friends, I thank you for inspiring me and teaching me for all of you I made Cream Puff Explosion.

-MJ

The Gift

Sitting in the sturdy (yet remarkably un-sturdy looking) orange chair in Andy’s condo on Saturday evening, I watched the first 6 minutes or so of The Gift unfold on the computer monitor in front of me. The Gift is a very complex and mesmerizing story in the Ashita cannon. It’s probably the story that the audience will have the most difficulty with because of its dark context and the open ended questions it presents to the viewer.

The story is about a couple whose marriage and relationship has deteriorated into estranged oblivion, The Gift is tail end culmination of that couple’s relationship. Toshio, who hasn’t see his wife, Meiko, for almost a year flies from Tokyo to Toronto to serve his wife with divorce papers—the only way Meiko would agree to a divorce is if her husband bring the papers himself. He catches a red eye from Tokyo and plans to leave the very same day. He is not pleased with having to hand-deliver the papers on the extravagant, eccentric whim of his wife. Meiko is pensive and distant as she sits in her apartment smoking her cigarette waiting for Toshio. When he arrives, they are cold and distant to each other, it’s almost hard to see that they were once in love except for the cold memories each brings up in the conversation. As they talk and each increasingly tries to smooth out the uncomfortable air between them, Toshio gets increasingly annoyed and Meiko gets increasingly vicious towards him. The raises as Toshio explodes into violence towards his wife, yet Meiko accepts his physical attack with sexual gratification and to further hurt him, she presents him with a gift… when he sees the gift Toshio is left viscerally emasculated and emotionally destroyed.

What a story indeed. Toshio is played by Toronto contemporary artist tomolennon, whose portrayal of the alpha male on the verge of a nervous breakdown is stunningly accurate. I found his ability to portray the annoyance, bitterness and scorn of Toshio quite remarkable. The part of Meiko was played by Yukiko J. Tamaki with equal brilliance. The sadness and confusion she brought to the character were powerfully shocking. The conflicting nature of Meiko will leave the audience much like they leave Toshio and Yukiko’s ability to do was frightening in stature. In watching Andy’s early cuts of the scene, the powerful acting of both Yukiko and tomolennon rings true to the nature of the script.

When I was watching the early cut of the scene on Saturday night I felt very uncomfortable—which is good, there is a lot of tension in the room with Meiko and Toshio and everything in the early pointed to that tension and I really felt the impact of the acting, camera and editing. Watching The Gift was like remembering a bad memory, which is essentially what I wanted the feeling to be.

To me, while writing and making The Gift, I had to visit some very dark parts of the human soul (I know my actors had to go there as well). Relationships are always very interesting, yet there is almost something obsessive about how they end. In retrospect it always seems silly later on, but in the heat of the moment—that very fine, precise moment when you know the relation is dead it’s a rather catastrophic feeling. I’ve been through my fare share of relationship based issues and I’ve had relationships and friendships end and I wanted to capture that feeling—that empty anger people feel at the end. I think studying that empty anger is important, because it then when we cease being the logical free thinking human beings that we are and we revert to an instinctual sate of attack and defense. The main reason that I was uncomfortable watching this scene, is the same reason I was uncomfortable writing it; I don’t want to accept that I can one day be in that situation. Furthermore I want to completely deny ever feeling that angry or vulnerable. Human emotion is completely brilliant and baffling all at the same time. I think that the honesty in The Gift is the strong point in the story. Watching these characters fall apart is a reminder of how fragile and tragic our lives can be.

My greatest inspiration when writing the gift was the brilliant film Kramer vs. Kramer as well as Michael Mann’s urban epic Heat. These films are all shocking reminders of humanity and relationships going straight to hell. The characters in these films, much like the characters in The Gift are not characters any of us want to be, but in the same sense, they are characters that we may turn into. Of all the stories in Ashita, The Gift was the quietest to shoot. What do I mean by that? Well, it was the one with a closed set. On set were the actors, Izumi my producer and wife—she was on set as my only crew, and me. The social interaction on set was minimal and the shooting long and intense. Even the rehearsals were done separately. Jenny and tomolennon were rehearsing separately as to deliberately not see each other to increase the distance of their characters.

In the end, The Gift asks: Where did life go? Why did it have to run away? Why do things have to change?

Teddy Bear

Sayaka is alone… Well not totally, she has Teddy, her stuffed bear to keep her company as she walks the streets of the city at night. She talks to Teddy, she tries to understand why the love of her life has left her. Somehow walking and hoping for rain brings Sayaka comfort.

She misses him. If only she could see more than a memory of him, if only he’d come back. Sayaka explores the beauty of the night as she walks. She points out to Teddy the eccentricities of life, love and loneliness as she goes about her various nightly activities like playing chess with Teddy or eating noodles. Before going to bed, she confronts Teddy about the lonely world they live in and tries to reassure him that life will get better… if only it would rain.

This story, Teddy Bear, will probably be one of the favorites by the viewers of Ashita. As it has very sad undertones, it is, by far, not as tragic as many other scenes in the movie. Some people may even be able to identify with Sayaka and her perspective on live. Certainly the character is a little off centre—being that she is in her late 20s and walks through the city at night talking to a teddy bear. But the same thing that makes the character and story off centre also gives is sweetness and melodramatic romanticism.

The part of Sayaka is brilliantly played by Yoshiko Nomura who brings a natural comfort to the role. I was very happy when Yoshiko accepted to play the part, I knew she would bring the character to life in the way only Yoshiko’s natural personality could. Teddy Bear was very challenging for me to create and shoot. Sayaka is indeed a very complex character, but she has to be portrayed as simple. For me, its always easy and fun to write dark, complex characters with a lot of demons... but with Sayaka who is a cute girl with a cute teddy bear, to make that kind of sweet image have complicated layers was very interesting. The fact that she talks to the stuffed bear helps, other absurdities like playing chess with the bear also adds to the layers. Essentially what I wanted to create with this story and this character was the sense of estrangement that heartbreak brings. When your heart is broken, you always feel like you’re the only one in the world who is hurting. You feel like no matter happens life will always feel this empty. Before writing the story I thought about these things and then I added the ‘what if’—What if the heartbroken feeling doesn’t go away? What if someone carried this feeling for a long, long time? What if her heart is broken because she lost her soul mate? How would it change her? How would she be affected? I bring those answers out in film, in a very unique way. I feel that the answer is not clear. Any human reaction is never fully clear. But the result is a simple girl who tries to deal with complex feelings.

-MJ

Something in the dark

The dark is cold and savage. In the distance it approaches me. I can feel it coming. I can hear its breath. Its closer than I think.

"Hello my old friend, we meet again," it whispers to me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"The same thing you are," I know its smiling. I can't see it, but I feel it. I feel that evil smile in the dark. How quickly life can change and turn--one moment all seems well and in the next it collapses.

"I don't want you here." It knows I'm scared. I can sense it in the deepest part of my soul. The dark doesn't always bring peace. The dark doesn't always bring quiet.

"You made me, now you don't want me." It's close. Very close. I can feel its cold breath. I can smell the stink. "You have to face me sometime. Were you so foolish to think that you could hide in the dark. Did you think you would find refuge here? Mercy?"

Its circling me. I can hear its heart beating. How I wish I could start over... start again. Pain or no pain, I wish I could begin everything again.

It laughs, "You are a fool." Can it hear my thoughts? Does it know what I am feeling? It laughs more. "The more you run or hide from me, the closer I get. The more you try to understand me, the more I become a part of you."

Its around me everywhere, slithering, walking, crawling. I can't tell. It tightens. It has me in its grip. The pain sets in, it fills my muscles, my nerves, my bones. It tightens its grip on me. I feel my life draining into the darkness. As the darkness absorbs my soul, I hear: "I forgive you."

Fireflies

When you sit down in a dark room and look your thoughts in the eye, you sometimes come to an awesome realization—things may be headed in the right direction. Ashita has officially been in production for a year. This doesn’t disturb me as much as it did a few months ago when I was in Vegas—I went to Vegas because I was so disturbed, overwhelmed and partially depressed and what seemed to be an unending process of making this strange experimental film. Subsequently, I was more depressed when I decided to cut one story out of the film in order to write and film another that would work better in the context of Ashita. The decision, didn’t depress me so much as the thought of having to go on set again and shoot yet another story. Lucky for me, I have some wonderful people surrounding me and they’ve revived my excitement in the shooting of this new story. I discovered this the other day while sitting in my computer room listening to the opera La Boheme blasting through my headphones.

I have been requested by some Ashita fans (thanks whoever you are, though I am still convinced it’s my mom and wife) to write more in depth entries about each story along with my critical analysis. Since I have yet to shoot the newest story, Fireflies and since it is the freshest in my mind, I will talk about it first.

Fireflies was written as a replacement for a replacement. Originally, I had another story ready to replace “Ms. Smiley” and Leona and I had had a few meetings about it. Upon further reflection, I felt that the story titled “Ai & Nana” would be best suited for another project. Having been listening to opera and drinking heavily over the past few weeks I began to wonder what happened to all the fireflies, I remember seeing them when I young, but now I don’t see so many, even in the country side. This was the beginning of my new story for Ashita… in fact I open the story with those exact words, here is the opening words of the story:

V.O.-ETSU: “I wonder whatever happened to all the fireflies. (BEAT) When I was a little girl I remember seeing so many fireflies. Today I can barely see any.”

The story follows Etsu as she’s traveled from Japan to North America to seek out her estranged father who abandoned her and her mom when she was a little girl. The only sign she every got from her father was a card every year on her birthday asking her not to forget the fireflies (seeing fireflies at beach with her father is her fondest childhood memory). Ashita is a film mainly about love, loneliness and the human condition. Throughout the film, I explore love between friends, a marriage that’s fallen apart, loneliness through routine, a lost love and love through art. With this new story, Fireflies, I wanted to explore the love between parents and children (as I am soon to become a parent, it is something that has been floating through my head). I had few ideas on how to explore this them, certainly the relationship between a parent and a child, like any other, grows constantly. Etsu has not seen her father in over 20 years, yet she still loves him and has not forgotten the memories of the fireflies at the beach. As the story progresses, Estu discovers some rather unpleasant truths about her father. Maybe the memories of the fireflies represent, to both Etsu and her father, a perfect memory. Maybe it represents the way of how each of them wishes their love could be… and by it existing in their thoughts, does it not become somewhat of a reality? The question is, can you love someone through a memory? If I knew the answer I wouldn’t have written the story. Maybe you can, even though, in most cases, a memory is either better or worse than the actual situation. A memory is what you want it to be.

Being human is not an easy thing. Though I know deep down, Etsu has had a very difficult life she still seems to have certain type of optimism. The things she learns about her father are not easy to hear. Realizing the man she is looking for is not at all the man she remembers. How difficult this reality must be to accept. Etsu, through her joyful optimism and eccentric conversations with herself, chooses to accept her memories as the truth she’d rather have. Love, life and humanity are all mysteries that Etsu, like everyone else alive tries to solve. But maybe, some mysteries remain better unsolved. Like the line says in Nussun Dorma from Puccini’s opera Turandot;

Nessun dorma!... Tu pure, o Principessa,
Nella tua fredda stanza
Guardi le stelle
Che tremano d'amore e di speranza.
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
Il nome mio nessun saprà!
Solo quando la luce splenderà,
Sulla tua bocca lo dirò fremente!...
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
Che ti fa mia!...

Translated it says:

Nobody shall sleep!... Nobody shall sleep! Even you, o Princess, in your cold room, watch the stars, that tremble with love and with hope.But my secret is hidden within me, my name no one shall know... No!...No!... On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!...


Yes, some mysteries are better to be left alone. Their meanings will be discovered in time and through nature.

-MJ

Ashita in a Nutshell

It stares at me like giant beacon. A pathetic reminder of the state of things:

Jesus is my homeboy.

I wonder if Jesus is opposed to the term “homeboy” and I wonder what he thinks about being used in the context of said “homeboy.”

“Eight Seventy-three,” the Korean guy says.

I hand the guy the cash, he gives me my change and I tell him, “Nice t-shirt.”

Jesus is my homeboy.

I really don’t want to do this anymore. My back hurts, my knees hurt, I’ve put on weight, haven’t gotten a decent night’s sleep since August 2006. I’m tired, so damn tired.

Write more about the stories... these are the orders from the producers. "We want people to get interested in what the film is about. Where do I start?

Ashita is comprised of six stories all revolving around something that will happen tomorrow. On top of the six stories we have Keiko's dance, that ties the stories to each other.

Here is a breakdown of the stories:

3 Girls, is basically that. We have Yuki, who runs... she runs from a white ghost like figure who slowly and patiently chases her. Yuki is frightened and more than anything wants to be free of the curse that follows her. Meanwhile, Miki and Ayumi are at work at the local bar. Both are fairly miserable in their lives, when a mysterious white ghost like figure appears. Their paths will cross with Yuki on a deeper level than one would imagine.

The Gift, Toshio has traveled from Tokyo in order for his estranged wife Meiko to sign divorce papers. Meiko would not sign them unless they were hand delivered by her husband. Annoyed and frustrated, Toshio got on a plane and here he is wanting to get their awful marriage finally finished. He and Meiko discuss their marriage and what possibly went wrong. Each blames the the other. Each blames themselves. Everything falls apart. Everything breaks down. Toshio simply wants Meiko to sign the divorce papers so they can each live their own lives. Before she does, she gives Toshio a gift... something that destroys his very soul and leaves him broken.

Teddy Bear, Sayaka walks through the streets at night. With her she carries Teddy, a stuffed bear and her best friend. She reflects on her life and her lost love. Sayaka misses him and tries not cry and she studies the city at night and wishes for rain. Rain, will clean everything and maybe bring him back. He asks Teddy to help stay strong as she walks through the night. She promises to take care of Teddy... she won't abandon Teddy like she was abandoned.

Cream Puff Explosion, Riko, Mizuki and Aya are reunited after five years. They used to be in a Japanese pop band together. They have all come together for Yuuka's wedding. As they three friends reminisce about the old days and about being young, some awful truths emerge from deeply hidden places and soon their friendship is tested as the lies of reality surface.

The Wonderful Elton Fuji, is a young artist. He is also a mute. His only way to express the beauty he sees in the world is through his art. He spends his days and nights sketching the world he sees. Elton is infatuated with the girl next door, the only way he knows how to tell her is through his art; one day he sketches a beautiful drawing for her and leave sit on her doorstep. What follows is a wonderful story of love without words and humanity through art.

Fireflies, is my newest story for Ashita. Etsu's father left her when she was just a little girl. But every year on her birthday she gets a letter from him. Etsu decides to travel outside of Japan to find her dad. She has so many questions, but she mainly wants to tell him he forgives him for leaving and she still loves him. When she finally finds her father's house, she meets her half sister Ami and discovers a frightening reality about her father. Things didn't quite go as Etsu had expected.


Well, that's Ashita in a nutshell I guess.

Ashita Stories

I can’t believe this… it can’t be true. I swore—I promised. I’m done, I am not making another movie. I hate this industry, I hate people I want to live far, far away, maybe a small town in Japan making coffee and reading books all day. Why am I doing this then? Why can some people get through their entire lives without ever doing this? Why do I need to be more than that? Why?

I wake up, have a cup of coffee and try to keep my mind blank with cartoons and sports highlights. I want to control my thoughts—I want to be like everybody else. Then, it starts—the voice starts. It whispers to me “Help me”. Then, the image on TV is replaced by a scared girl running away. What is she running from? “Damn it” I tell myself. “I need to call the cable company, the channels are all mixed up.”

I finish my coffee and go in the shower. The running girl is back. She’s running, she’s covered in sweat, she’s scared, it’s late a night. “Help me,” she says. “Somebody please help me.” What’s chasing her? Why doesn’t she stay and fight? What can be so bad that she’s running so much? “Stop it!” I say to myself. “Forget it.”

I get out of the shower, I slowly get dressed and head outside. The morning air, will clear my head of any disturbing creativity. As I walk I listen to my iPod, reminding myself of all those meetings I had with TV and movie executives—reminding myself that these people are dumb, they can only work in show business—they’re not even fit to be rodeo clowns, I tell myself. Then, all of a sudden, it’s night—how did it become night?—in the distance I see woman—or is it a girl?—walking alone. She’s talking to herself—no wait, she’s talking to a teddy bear. What romantic and sad sight. I try to focus on her a bit more, I want to hear what she’s telling her bear—All of a sudden it is day again. The girl is gone. It’s happening again. I swore it would never happen again—I hate this. I need more coffee. Coffee can fix anything. I don’t even recognize the part of town I’m in, but I feel comforted because there is a Tim Horton’s—surely any place with a Timmy’s can’t be so evil. I wait in line for my large double, double and possible a Boston Cream donut, finest breakfast for a toonie. Standing in front of me I see a young woman with a backpack—just another tourist visiting our fair city. Then she looks at me and smiles, "I'm here to find my father."

Well, good for you.

“He's with the fireflies.” She says to me, then turns back to place her order. Man, I ought to lay off the caffeine.

I sit on the subway, trying to figure out how to be like everybody else, when I see the woman with her teddy bear again. She appears to be in full conversation with the bear, but I cannot understand a word they are saying. “What a strange woman,” I think to myself. I turn to look away and sitting behind me I see a a big haired guy with a sketch book almost as big as he is busy at work drawing. He's drawing me. He smiles and gives me a thumbs up.

I get off the subway, trying to understand what in the hell is going on today. When I pass by another girl, who sits quietly on the subway steps, she smokes a cigarette. Everything becomes slow motion as I walk by her, she has this grin on her face, I am not sure if she's smiling or if she is in pain. "I've got a gift for him," she says. "Something that will change everything."

I really gotta stop leaving my house.

Later that night as I fall asleep I begin to think of the people that I encountered over the day. The woman on the subway steps, the scared running girl and the woman with her teddy, the guy with the sketch book. In some strange way they all seem familiar to me. They’re all connected in some way. Can it be that simple…

As I fall asleep, the answer comes, maybe I don’t make movies—maybe the movies make me.

Ashita Back on Track

How interesting things have been over the last few months. We shot our last frame of scripted Ashita (meaning anything that was written in the script) in early May.
In June we shot some sequences that were somewhat improvised with one of Toronto’s most prolific dancers Keiko Ninomiya (http://www.keiko.ca/). These sequences we shot with Keiko represent a type of story narration—much like the Chorus in ancient Greek theatre. Since the film is riddled with voice over by many of the characters, I felt that I needed some kind of overseer (this stems from my love of classic theatre and comic books) to be the puppet master or god who juggles these characters. I most certainly knew I did not want this character to talk. Upon watching a lot of Fellini movies, I got the idea for a mime or clown to be the film’s overseer. But that would change. As I edited a video I had shot of tomolennon’s art/fashion show I got to watching the dancers he had in his show. As watched and re-watched the Fellini movies, the mime was quickly changed for a dancer. Lucky for me, my lovely wife Izumi knows almost everybody in Toronto and when I mentioned to her my idea, she quickly threw Keiko’s name at me. And thus the new sequence grew. For a while, I was pent up on the dancer being a clown and I had discussed that I length with Keiko, but in the end, we went with a stoic white mask—which works and is completely frightening and sad at all the same time. I know I had a lot of fun shooting the dance sequences with Keiko and they will beautiful scenes and visually stunning.
As the post production progressed, Andy (the editor) and I discussed in great detail certain aspects of the movie and the overall feel of Ashita. I mentioned to Andy that I had certain reservations about the Miss Smiley story—this is the story of the angry female assassin that was brilliantly played by Leona Kitabayashi. I felt that the story was too different from the rest of Ashita. Of course when I wrote and shot it, it worked—but as things progressed the movie took on a new feel and the story about the assassin didn’t seem to flow with the rest of the film. Andy agreed with me and made a very good suggestion; he said he would edit it anyway and we would try it in Ashita, if it works great—if not, we have a stand alone short film. I got busy in writing a new story. I know one thing was for sure, I wanted to work with Leona again; she is a fine actor and is a pleasure to work with. When I met with Leona in July to inform her of what I had decided to do with her previous story in Ashita, I was a little nervous. I thought she was going to get angry and kung fu kick me, but luckily she was happy to work with me again (phew). Finally last week, I finished a new story called Fireflies—a much more somber story about a young lady named Etsu (played by Leona) who is looking for her father who abandoned her when she was just a little girl. I plan on shooting this story later this month.
Its funny how movies never seem to get made the way they are originally planned—based on my plans we should have been screening Ashita by now, then based on my revised plans we should have had a completed rough cut by now… but this, of, course is not the case. The case is, Ashita is right where its supposed to be. It’s a piece of art discovering itself. Like my cast and crew, I am excited to see the finished product, but I do not want to rush it… because I can see where it’s going and it will be brilliant.
On a sad, final note, this week saw the death of two of cinema’s greatest:

Ingmar Berman (July 12, 1918-July 30, 2007) who as a director, Bergman favored intuition over intellect, and chose to be unaggressive in dealing with actors. Bergman saw himself as having a great responsibility toward them, viewing them as collaborators often in a psychologically vulnerable position. He stated that a director must be both honest and supportive in order to allow others their best work. His films usually deal with existential questions of mortality, loneliness, and faith; they also tend to be direct and not overtly stylized. Persona, one of Bergman's most famous films, is unusual among Bergman's work in being both existentialist and avant-garde. I chose to pay homage to Bergman in Ashita by shooting as scene in the Teddy Bear story in which Sayaka (played wonderfully by Yoshiko Nomura) plays chess against her teddy bear… for those film enthusiasts reading this, you’ll know that one of Bergman’s most famous scenes—in fact one of the most famous scenes in cinema history is from his film The Seventh Seal where a man plays chess with the personification of death. I, like millions of others, love The Seventh Seal and I felt that a scene in which Sayaka plays chess against Teddy would not only pay homage to my love of films, but also bring a deep depth to Sayaka and what her stuffed bear symbolizes.

Michelangelo Antonioni (September 29, 1912 – July 30, 2007) was an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered as some of the most influential in film aesthetics. Film historian Virginia Wright Wexman describes Antonioni's perspective on the world as that of a "postreligious Marxist and existentialist intellectual." In a speech at Cannes about L'Avventura, Antonioni said that in the modern age of reason and science, mankind still lives by "a rigid and stereotyped morality which all of us recognize as such and yet sustain out of cowardice and sheer laziness". He said his films explore the paradox that "we have examined those moral attitudes very carefully, we have dissected them and analyzed them to the point of exhaustion. We have been capable of all this, but we have not been capable of finding new ones." Nine years later he expressed a similar attitude in an interview, saying that he loathed the word 'morality': "When man becomes reconciled to nature, when space becomes his true background, these words and concepts will have lost their meaning, and we will no longer have to use them." Most of Antonioni’s films explored themes of characters whose lives are empty and purposeless. Again, I studied his work extensively when preparing the melancholy tones of the characters in Ashita.
Both Bergman and Antonioni were gems to the film world and I can only hope that their influence on me and Ashita be minutely as good as their contributions to the cinematic art.

-MJ

More on Writing

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting a place called Green Mango on Yonge and Bloor… at least I think it was called Green Mango… with Rumiko and Kana, two of the lovely ladies from Ashita’s story Cream Puff Explosion. And we were discussing acting and Ashita of course. I was thrilled to hear from both of them that they were excited to see the finished film and Rumiko quickly mentioned that if I were doing another film, that she would love to act for me again—I took that as the ultimate compliment.
The topic of the next film often comes up in my conversations with people working on this movie, again, their eagerness to want to work with me again is taken as the highest of all compliments. But, thankfully, I am not a big movie studio that churns out movies once a year… and I most certainly do not plan sequels while still in production of the first movie. Though, Ashita (the Japanese word for tomorrow) could easily have follow ups titles Today and Yesterday, but I do not work like that.
For me, writing is an escape from this crazy world we live in. The thought of being alone in a room with music, coffee and my imagination is refreshing. Sitting there creating a world, where I can be as violent or as peaceful as I want. I can hate, I can love, I can be happy, sad, angry… I can be or make whatever I want with this world. And usually I write when I have something to say, I don’t just write because I have to make another movie.
As a writer, Ashita has been the most interesting of all my projects, it’s the only film where I’ve had to remove an entire part of the story and replace with a new one. I guess this is either perfectionist or total insanity. But some people think that writing is simply writing about what happened to you. It’s more than that, its much, much more—it’s about bringing out all the moments in your life and all the feelings in your heart. Writing is less about documenting your experiences and more about what you retained from them. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll every stop writing, as to whether it will be a movie or not, I don’t know. I have often debated writing a novel. Recently, I wrote my very first manga (comic book) which was a lot of fun. My first film The Meatball Story, was never intended to be a made as a film. I wrote it as a play and was fully preparing to produce it as a play when the harsh realities of theatre (sometimes harsher than the realities of movies) came crashing into me like Optimus Prime at an Energon cube party (geek alert, geek alert).
Interestingly, today, I saw 8 people reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a book released only 3 days ago and the last of Harry Potter global phenomenon series. For all you would be writers out there, lets take J.K. Rowling as an example—as in my previous entries, I make references to what literary muggles would refer to as obscure personalities. J.K. Rowling, from what I understand, was a single mother and unemployed at the time she wrote the first Harry Potter book. Based on my earlier statement of writing about how your life is affected by your experiences. Here is a lady, who had very little money, writing about a boy wizard, who will grow up to save the world and be the greatest wizard in history. Now, I highly doubt that Rowling was foreshadowing her future as the most successful authors ever and as the richest woman on the planet. Or did she? I will conclude with a quote by the great Neil Simon who once said: “If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.” This coming from a man who wrote some of the greatest comedies of contemporary theatre. Interesting, n’est pas?

The Joys of Writing

As writer I get to have fun with a lot of things. Especially with a project like Ashita, which, explores the deep rooted pain and reality of being human. In a movie where almost every character drinks heavily, cries or has some kind of emotional breakdown, I am often asked where I come up with these ideas.
My lovely and multi-talented wife, Izumi, who has been a tremendous support to me over the course of Ashita is the very first to read all my work, she is also the first I discuss all the topics and themes of Ashita with. Like any artist, I work to ask questions that will make the audience think and feel. I am firm believer that humans are creatures of passion and that most of the illogical or irrational things we do are from the passion of our feelings and emotions. This is what makes us interesting and unique. I also believe that in order to have the audience react to a character, we must present a character with emotions. Theatre and film writer/director David Mamet, whom I admire greatly, is quoted as saying: “A good film script should be able to do completely without dialogue.” I would disagree here, I think that humans communicate through words and emotions, when making a film like Ashita, which is the study of the complexity of being human, one must talk and must talk a significant amount. In movies, as in life, people may or may not say what they mean, but they always say something designed to get what they want. In most cases, people want to be happy and happiness is like those places in fairy tales that are guarded by big dragons, we must fight in order to get in. This is the point I am making with Ashita is that people lie, people cheat, people hurt others in their quest to be happy. People live in the past in their quest to be happy. People shut down their minds in order to try and be happy. You have to fight in order to be happy. So the questions that are asked in Ashita: Is better to hurt someone to make yourself happy or is better to hurt yourself to make others happy? If doing the right thing is right, then why does it not always lead to happiness? Is happiness finite or is it different to everybody? What is loneliness? These themes are bounced all over Ashita’s six stories and
Like the great Alexandre Dumas said: “If God were suddenly condemned to live the life which He has inflicted upon men, He would kill Himself.”

The Geeks of Popular Culture

I’ve been into comics lately both the traditional North American and the Japanese manga. Every few months I get in my Manga mood and I have deep routed urges to read art.

Again many people will point and snicker at me when I am in seen in public with a manga or comic book. There is a certain geek sigma with reading these (some sorry souls may not even consider it reading). To be honest, I find odd to ostracize anyone who is so largely into popular culture. Let’s be realistic here, who on the planet has not heard of Superman, Batman and Spider-Man? Superman along with Mickey Mouse and Elvis are among the most recognized figures in the world. There must be a lot of geeks (and Elvis fans) in the world. And if we look even deeper at Superman we will see how a character created in 1932 by American writer Jerry Seigel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster went on to span over three generations and almost 75 years in popular culture.
The first adaptation of Superman was as a daily newspaper comic strip, launching on January 16, 1939. The strip ran until May 1966, and significantly, Siegel and Shuster used the first strips to establish Superman's backstory, adding details such as the planet Krypton and Superman's father, Jor-El, concepts not yet established in the comic books. Following on from the success of this was the first radio series, The Adventures of Superman, which premiered on February 12, 1940 and featured the voice of Bud Collyer as Superman. The series ran until March, 1951. Collyer was also cast as the voice of Superman in the Fleischer Studios animated cartoons, distributed via movie theatres. Seventeen shorts were produced between 1941 and 1943. By 1948 Superman was back in the movie theatres, this time in a filmed serial, Superman, with Kirk Alyn becoming the first actor to portray Superman on screen. A second serial, Atom Man vs. Superman, followed in 1950.
In 1951 a television series was commissioned, starring George Reeves, with the pilot episode of the series gaining a theatrical release as Superman and the Mole Men. The series ran for a 104 episodes, from 1952–1958. The next adaptation of Superman occurred in 1966, when Superman was adapted for the stage in the Broadway musical It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman. The play wasn't successful, closing after 128 performances, although a cast album recording was released. However, in 1975 the play was remade for television. Superman was again animated, this time for television, in the series "The New Adventures of Superman". 68 shorts were made and broadcast between 1966 and 1969. Bud Collyer again provided the voice for Superman. Then from 1973 until 1984 ABC broadcast the "Super Friends" series, this time animated by Hanna-Barbera.
Superman returned to movie theatres in 1978, with director Richard Donner's Superman starring Christopher Reeve. The film spawned three sequels, Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987). In 1988 Superman returned to television in the Ruby Spears animated series Superman, and also in Superboy, a live action series which ran from 1988 until 1992.In 1993 Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman premiered on television, starring Dean Cain as Superman and Teri Hatcher (who’s still super hot, by the way) as Lois Lane. The series ran until 1997. Superman: The Animated Series was produced by Warner Bros. and ran from 1996 until 2000 on The WB Television Network In 2001 the Smallville television series launched, focussing on the adventures of Clark Kent as a teenager before he dons the mantle of Superman. In 2006 Bryan Singer directed Superman Returns, starring Brandon Routh as Superman.
I won’t list all the music references to Superman, but some of the most popular ones have been: Kryptonite by Three Doors Down and Superman (It's Not Easy) by Five for Fighting and a few others from Barbara Streisand, Eminem, R.E.M and The Kinks.
And here’s my personal favorite thing about Superman: Jerry Seinfeld, a noted Superman fan, filled his series Seinfeld with references to the character, and in 1997 asked for Superman to co-star with him in a commercial for American Express. The commercial aired during the 1998 NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl, Superman animated in the style of artist Curt Swan, again at the request of Seinfeld.
All this being noted, can we really say that comics are only for geeks? By the looks of it, the world is full of geeks like me or Spider-Man 3 would not have made $884 459 679 (US) at the box office.
To those of you who have been called a geek, be proud, we out number the rest of them. To those of you closet comic fans, come on out—we love you. And to those of you who have always wanted to make your own comic, do it! The world always needs more heroes and its never too late for you do something you love… my good friend Luc is a brilliant example of that, he will soon be the next great Batman writer.
And finally to those of you who have no interest in comics: Why did you read this far anyway?

-MJ