Old ears, folks. It's show people pay good money to see this movie.
When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot
popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone for ten podcasting isn't
borings like cord. She will get up a pendor domain. She hadn't produced
put on kill an Uncle? You did? I get funny West See when
you moutimated Cocomen talk about it's so good when you're Indian. My source,
you re union, you do start, you stump among its Demimus. Welcome
to the projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White. On this special
episode, I'm speaking with Chia Hayakawa, the director of the twenty twenty two
film Planned seventy five. It's a slightly sci fi look at Japan in ten
years and how they handled the elderly. It's a great film, and miss
Hyakawa was great to talk to. I hope you enjoyed the interview. She
e before we even start to talk about Playing seventy five, can you tell
me how you got into filmmaking. I wanted to become a filmmaker, sins.
I was like thirteen years old. It was quite our but after graduating
high school, I went to New York studying photography at SVA Schools of Visual
Arts. And after spending ten years in New York, I came back to
Tokyo and worked for the film department of Japanese Satellite Television. But I was
doing an administrative job. It's not the creative job at the time, so
I decided to go to one year program like film school. My piece is
short film. I told Nayagara, what got into Cinefondation camp from festival.
It's a kind of student section that kind of opening up the door to film
industry and I started me I get to know more people like producers and also
started to participate in various people making workshops. Then I had a chance to
direct one of the segments Obtaining in Japan. It's a collection of five films
Tective produced by hirokas Greda, and it was my first time to work with
professional stuff. And then film got theatrical release in Japan and some other countries.
That's how I started my directing career. But I still had working for
that TV company at the time, so I quit my daytime job and decided
to become a full time director. Then it was twenty eighteen, and I
took another four years before I could make my first future then Platenti five.
Where did the idea for the short version of point seventy five come from?
Already had that concept before Ten Year Japan. I was thinking to make it
in future film, but at the time I don't know anyone who can work
with me as a producer. I got to know about ten Year Japan project.
It was a closed competition for young film ojectors and one of the producers
of the film Recommissional Gray. She asked me if I'm interested in applying it.
The film is about Japan in ten years in future, so I thought
Plassy five is a good fit to that concept. So I decided to make
a short version first as a kind of pilot film. How did you go
from that shorter version to the longer version. Sounds like you've already had the
longer version in mind. I initially thought about future length story with five main
characters. When I made a short version, I focused on only one character.
Then, you know, after making a short version, I went back
to develop the story in a full length with these five people. But pipe
people is still too macne, I thought, so I narrowed out to like
three main characters, which is Michi, the old lady, and also she
removed the fells persion of the plastic five and Maria who is working for the
facility from you know. In future length format, I could depict more characters
from different backgrounds and dig deeper into characters you know, emotional and reveal the
reality and detail more detail of system of class sectify. In short film,
I tend to focus on the impact of the story and the concept what plus
set five and I chose a dark ending to fu well audiences anxiety and asking
like do you really order to lead the society like this? However, while
developing the script of future version, I was the COVID pandemic happened, and
I was so devastated. I started thinking that I should present a kind of
hope in this field. Nobody wants to watch depressing film because our reality is
already pressing. I didn't want to make people uneasy with already being depressed in
real life, so I changed some of the characters settings and also changed the
engine. Why seventy five, why that particular number in Japan the government called
people is over seventy five. I don't know what to say. It an
issues like late term elderly people. It's a kind of special term they called
them. Then when they created that term, I felt so bad. I
was not comfortable to use that words like later term book the elderly people.
It sounds like these people is you know, in the last very that stage
of the dead life. So I really don't like that term. And I'm
then they you know, toast the line by their age. So seven de
five is a set our government decided to make the border between all these stations
elderly and other younger people and overstivity five you see later stage. So I
spot if they make plant system like this, the definitive will use seventy five
as an age. And to plant, the term of plants sounds like an
insurance plant. It gives you the impression that easy to use, that convenient
is very some kind of like insurance plant, so very cultural sounds. So
that's why I use that term the name, the name make plant seventy five.
I was curious because I know retirement age here in the US is like
sixty seven now I think it is, and I know there's the fight in
France to try to keep it at sixty two, or they might be trying
to move it to sixty two, which is bad. So I was just
curious because there's not that many years between sixty seven and seventy five. So
I was curious as far as how the elderly are looked at and treated in
Japan. Echiston is existing in society also the media, television and the media.
Few will be people pushed anxiety to becoming old. We might those helps,
we might kids see and we might be called dements here. If we
don't have family, we might have to die at home at all and nobody
will find us something like that. You know, there's so many like anxiety
and fear we have about being old. Is. I think it's kind of
national for fear for Japanese to becoming involved like back then, like when I
was a child, being old is. You know, it's a good thing.
We are thinking. It was thought that it think to live longer,
and we respect the elderly. We have respected the elderly, but now a
lot of people think that elderly people or could be a burden to society and
elderly people themselves, they feel themselves that they are burdened. They could be
imbordened to society or a family, so they wanted to die before they become
burdened to anyone. So that kind of thinking, if you know, becoming
more than all this, Now, that's that's why if we have if government
made the plans centified a a lot of people will accept it, will agreed.
In fact, after release from this film, and there's so many people
said, we want this system, we want this option. Yeah, so
many people yeah said that if understandable, not because they want to get rid
of the elderly, but they won't have that option for themselves because there were
so much they worry so much about being old is assisted? Two side is
illegal in Japan, it's not allowed illegal, but not More and more people
discussed about they want to have assistance, especially when they get older. As
you can tell that this film is not like pro or con us an issue.
I didn't want to a judgmental too about that issue, and also I
don't I didn't want to blame the people who take the choice. To avoid
the judgmental attitude. I think I took the kind of a documentary approach,
just observing what's happening in the society, and I wanted to leave that audience
how they feel, how they react to that situation. Can you tell me
about your co writer Jason Gray. Jason he is a partner of Eco Miss
Greshi also developed producers of Plasti five and basically he gave me an advisis on
structure and analytical feedback throughout the process of writing. And he has a good
eye on how to build a structure and emotional art openly characters. So he
helped me find a kind of premise of this film. And Jason an Eco
enemy like three of us working to develop the script for about four years.
And it sounds like you did that a lotter in the pandemic we studied.
Actually the nineteen twenty nineteen is right before pandemic happened. Then it went to
all the pandemic years, so that experience changed a lot. We're in the
writing the story, the direction of the film. Me tell me about your
cast. They seem amazing. Cha Kobaye Show who played the protagonist. She
is um legendary actress and singer in Japan, and it's it's kind of rare
that you know that famous actress played working for you. A first time take
to like me, and she's been working for mostly like studio or films for
many years, so it was almost like a miracle for me that she accepts
this role, but and working with her was really amazing experience for me that
I was struck with wonder when I watched her performance during the shoot. Her
presence and also her presence broadened the range of audience. So the film was
a splash hit at the box office in Japan. It was a smash in
Japan, and I know it's a ton of awards as well. It must
have felt great to have your first film reach that acclaim one year ago proven
now, I was still in the studio finishing the film and I didn't imagine
this would have happened at the time, So I was so happy and really
appreciate all the people who made this film together with me. This success was
brought by collective intelligence to all the cast members and staff members. Because filmmaking,
I can't do it al alone, so I truly appreciate it. And
also this success, I believe that will help me to next film and very
happy about it. What were some of the biggest challenges making your first film?
Now, I went to film school only one year and I heard only
like basic talis that've never worked in on set for other directors. So I
had almost like no experience that I didn't really know what exactly in directed to
on set, how to direct when, in what timing to give the direction
to actors. I don't I didn't lose the you know, the process,
and so it took some days till I get used to that environment. But
everybody knows I'm the first time director, so they tried to help me,
and they tried to teach me what to do, and also they gave me
a lot of idea in so in fact, I think it was good that
there was a mood that everyone can speak their idea fleely and be more creative.
So I think it was good for the film. I know a lot
of first time directors did a lot of help and guide from their cinematographer.
Who was your cinematographer on less The photographer is Sideh Rata. He the Japanese
based in Singapore and he is working for many first time directors in Singapore and
other countries. So I can say that he's a mentor of five sharroommaking is
so helpful but he is not. It's not the person who tried to control
the director, but that he really had the president. He tried to understand
what I really wanted to do. I wanted to do. She was really
great cinematographer and also great mentor. Probably that was very lucky to work with
him. What was some of the best things you remember about working on the
film? We feel the last see that Michie Lutine has said, it's very
It was cloudy the mooding. We worried that we might not be able to
film the sunset on the day, and there was no extra day to shoot
because we are working on type basset. We didn't have extra film with date.
And then when we finished at me She's Apartment seen in the afternoon,
it headed to the location to film the night to see it was still cloudy,
no sound at all, but like thirty minutes before we arrived, the
clouds started to clear away slowly, but do we still have nice clouds around
so we could get perfect sunset. You know, the sky was perfect.
Jecoby Sho's performance was perfect. She was perfect. So we all surrounded Jecoby
Shoes from her like listening to her song and it was like miraculous moment and
I will never forget any We don't have any cloud at all. It looks
totally different. So we felt if that, yeah, there is a miracle
happened on that day. What was it like going to count with Of course
it was racing. Like my first festival experience was Can when I was you
know, stud's not exactly studio, but when I went to student section,
but it was A two fourteen, so it's about eight years ago, and
that's where I met a producer Eco in that year and she was working for
another film, but I met her in that Can in Choos out of fourteen.
But after eight years I made my future film with her and we all
went back to the same festival. So it was a pretty nice experience.
And also this film was made. It was an international co production of Japan,
France and Philippine but we never be able to get together in Purse because
of the COVID. We always talk on like over to. It was the
first time in Can where we all get together and see it person five.
So your is a really really amazing time. What are you working on now?
What's next for you? Because so simply five it very you know socially
social issue. They ended them, so I wanted to totally different things.
Next, I wanted to make more like personal story based on my childhood.
It's gonna be about a Penish girl who face up, faces up to dying
father. It's all inspite my childhood exchange. Thank you so much for your
time today. I really appreciate this and I wish you the best of luck
in your future endeavors it. Thank you very much. And joining about,
Thank you so much, and and and the