Q&A with Writer/Director Masayuki Suo and Actress Tamiyo Kusakari 

 

 

Q : Please join me in welcoming our guests. Christopher Montello(Moderator), Masaki Suo and Kennedy Taylor(translator) and Tamiyo Kusakari. Thank you very much. Thank you again for being here. In 1996,  where were you both, and how it was made?

Masayuki Suo : So I was in my 10th year as a director and just seeing this film now. Wow, we spent some money considering the Japanese film, huh?

My initial concept, just like Mr. Sugiyama(played by Koji Yakusho) in the film, I find myself on a train. Looking out at the train and across at these multi-use kind of office building, seeing a dance studio. It wasn’t up at the angle like Sugiyama-san see those building, it’s like on my eye level. But I saw this dance school and realized ever since I was a kid, I’ve seen these bloody dance schools all over the place.

Then, I had this thought if you were a salaried worker on the train, same time, same place, you would look into these studios. And I had the thought supposing you were a salaried workout and you saw a beautiful girl. You’d see her every day and supposing a guy like salaried worker had this idea of just once.

And instead of just being like a regular Japanese dismissing that thought in his head, supposing he had the courage to take that step and go into the dance school, what kind of adventure would unfold following that I started researching ballroom dance that led to the screenplay.

Masayuki Suo : It was very nice to bump into Kusakari-san in this location..(joke)

Tamiyo Kusakari: Yes, actually after releasing the film, “Shall We Dance?” in Japan 30 years ago,  we got married, so we’ve been together for 30 years…(Clapping from the audience)

Q : Kusakari-san, how did it begin for you? What was the process of beginning the film?

Tamiyo Kusakari : I was offered the role in the film, “Shall We Dance”, but at that time I was a ballerina, so being in the movie, which couldn’t have been further from my mind. But the offer came, I read the synopsis. I realized it was absolutely about the dance in my genuine sense. I thought, okay, I’ll give it a try.

Q : I don’t know that much about dance. Certainly, I’ve learned a lot from this film, but I imagine there’s a difference, right? Because the dancing to me, feels like continuously flowing, and you proceed to go through the routine, whereas with filmmaking, there’s a lot of starting and stopping different takes and different angles. So I wonder if you perceived a challenge in adapting to the rhythm of performing in a film versus as a ballerina.

Tamiyo Kusakari : It wasn’t so much the rhythm of filmmaking against docs that was a difference. The main obstacle that I had to overcome was the sheer difference in shoes. In ballet, you’re wearing toe shoes, which is something you are absolutely trained to do over and over.

Over all those years and then in ballroom dance is a completely different thing. So, as a dancer it was a huge challenge to adapt to that. But obviously we had many months of practice and over the course of that practice, I got used to it. As a dancer, one aspect of this project that made it appeal to me was that the character Mai, so many aspects of her life paralleled my own as a dancer, I knew this was a role only a dancer could play, that why I was moving forward to do this film.

Q : That’s amazing. I think the strength of the film comes from the ensemble, your performance, everybody working together, the feeling of teamwork and camaraderie. Suo-san, were there any techniques you employed to foster that similar feeling between the actors, that sense of teamwork the characters have?

Masayuki Suo : One aspect of my move is that the poor actors end up having to do a lot of intense work before we start. Obviously, “Sumo do, Sumo Don’t”(Shiko Funjatta), the actors, the cast, they have to go through this quite rigorous training to get up to speed with sumo and sumo wrestling. In “Fancy Dance,” the actors have to get inculcated in the ways of Buddhism and Buddhism movement as a training as a priest. And obviously for this film, the cast went through three months of intensive dance training. the actors have been together for so long, even before they step on set, that they’ve built this kind of community and teamwork during the production.

Q : I’m happy you mentioned these other films because I was interested to ask you what appeals to you about this subject matter, because there is some commonality right in “Sumo So, Sumo Don’t”,  as you mentioned, there’s a similar story of a man who reluctantly becomes a sumo wrestler joins a team, and then it becomes his passion. There’s similar story of finding one’s passion. What appeals to you about this subject?

Masayuki Suo : Yes, especially in these three of my films this concept of you’ve got job, your everyday routine. It’s a constant repetition, and there’s a moment when you have a chance to take a step into a world you don’t know. It’s something which Japanese people are traditionally not very good at doing, going outside their comfort zone. And so that’s why these films we’ve got this sense of having the courage to take that step and then the adventure then results from taking that step. That’s something I have been focused on.

Q : You mentioned your motivation is to speak to the Japanese people, but what has your experience been with the reception outside Japan, here in the U.S and the original release in the nineties? What is your impression of how it’s been received?

Masayuki Suo : This was a movie that I created solely within the context of Japan. It was entirely Japanese movie. I had never even any conception that it might play overseas or that even be seen overseas. So it was a great surprise to hear from a distribution, and we want to distribute this overseas. And my first question was what the hell for? What are you seeing it? So it’s an extremely interesting process. And I remember the Miramax’s executive who has been a key person in the acquisition, a young girl. She said for a start you’ve got music and family is worldwide.

Q : Kusakari-san, to what extent did you participate in the actual, training of the dance. To what extent did you participate in real life, teaching Koji Yakusho to dance?

Tamiyo Kusakari: No, I didn’t teach him..

Q : He’s beloved actor, I’m pretty sure for many people in this room. Do you have any fond memories of both of you? Fond memories of working with him on this film?

Masayuki Suo : So the is extremely serious and earnest actor, and he’s very much in the zone. So on set there wasn’t that much offset communication between us. I was a dancer. I wasn’t an actress back then. I was a dancer. what linked us was life of the character of Sugiyama and Mai, it was the dance that linked us. But now after 13 years the end of my dance career, become an actress. And so to see this film again now with an actress’s eye and to see Yakusho-san’s performance, I got an entirely new appreciation for his process of professionalism as an actor.

Q :Suo-san, can you also share your experience working with Yakusho-san?

Masayuki Suo : So, actually, another actor was due to play the role of Sugiyama, but we got into scheduling conflicts and it turned out he were not gonna be able to do the role. So we were in this urgent situation of needing to find a replacement. Somebody suggested KojiYakusho. Now to me, at that time, he was well known and I knew he was a fantastic actor, but his roles were Samurai, and Yakuza who were very masculine removed from daily life figures.

So I had some concern about him playing the role of just a regular guy, but I said, okay, listen I’ll meet him and we’ll see how it goes. We were meeting at this location and we happened to share the elevator. He immediately struck me as a salaried worker on his day off.

And we shared this moment in the elevator and he came across as this very nice, regular guy. I thought, if I can capture that, if I can get this Koji Yakusho, maybe we’re gonna be alright. In prior life, he had worked for City Hall and City Hall in Japanese is called, “Yakusho” in Japanese, why he adapted that stage name. There was this kernel of regular bloke and we got the world’s most fantastic salaryman ever.

Tamiyo Kusakari : Actually, there is one episode now that I recall about in the early days, he has an extraordinary presence. So, on the set, he gives off this masculinity that was hard to approach for a while. We obviously have very masculine ballet dancers and people have that presence and stuff, but it was different. And as a dancer, I hadn’t come across being that close in the flesh with an actor who had that aura.

(Questions from the Audience)

Q : Hi. I’m wondering if there is anything different about shooting the ballroom dance scenes and Ballet dance scenes?

Masayuki Suo : You’ve got the essential issue that you can cut for the action, or you can cut for music. And if you cut for the music, since you’ve got non-professional dancers, their actions aren’t quite matching in music. So if you cut the music you’ve got with the action you want or if you cut for the action, then the music is out of sync. So that constant challenge bridging the two was a big revelation to me how tricky that whole thing was.

Q : Hi. This is my first time watching this film and it was incredible. I loved the balance of how genuine it was and how heartbreaking it was, but also how laugh out loud funny it was, and I’m just curious of required it or working with the actors brought that tone out of the film.

Masayuki Suo : It’s very tricky things because I ended up just going entirely on my own instinct of where lives would happen, things that I found funny. So I was trusting my own instinct, there’s a time, obviously a comedy is all about timing, so there’s that timing element that I would find.

Oh yeah, there’s a laugh. And so it was entirely self instinct of my experience over the years and putting together those moments that I thought would be funny, that I found funny. It’s not calculated just an instinctual feeling for the Japanese word, “Ma”(timing), like that pause, or beat and a personal feeling of what would be funny.

My films, especially those three films(“Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t”, “Fancy Dance” and “Shall We Dance?”) are often referred to as comedies, but I don’t think of myself as making comedies. I love laughter, I love those beats where you get the laugh, so much part of it. I’m not too happy with my films being described as chords. It’s an interesting take on what I think I’m making and the way think about my movie.

I would hope you all get a chance to see “Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t”,  one of the few things that as I was writing, I’m falling out of the chair laughing,  that’s interesting.

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Here’s the trailer of the film.