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.”
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.”
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