Hey all, I had the great pleasure earlier this year of speaking to director Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose amazing Nobody Knows {2004} made me an instant fan.  Kore-eda talked about Still Walking, his latest examination of family bonds and also mentioned his upcoming fantasy film, Air Doll, starring Linda Linda Linda’s amazing Bae Doo-na.

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Still Walking

Director Hirokazu Kore-eda

The Lady Miz Diva:  What is the story behind Still Walking?

Hirokazu Kore-eda:  I wrote this script after my mother’s death.  About two years prior to her death, she was hospitalised because of a brain aneurysm.  Up until that point, I used my work as an excuse, but I really left her alone and didn’t take care of my mother.  Just like the main character in the film, I always thought I could always go home, I can always be with her, but you never really do. It’s a common occurrence with children.  Or maybe you just go home for New Year’s, for one day.  That’s about the level of relationship you might have with your parents.  When she was ill and I would go and visit her in the hospital for two years, I would take notes on the conversations I had with her.  For example, even though she was the one who was hospitalised, I’d walk in and she would be lying in her bed and she’d ask me about my cavities and be worried about me.  These notes I took were the starting point for the script.

LMD:  The mother is the most compelling character in the film to me.  We first see her as a very typical housewife and she’s very funny and sarcastic, then she reveals a scary and sadistic side, and last she has a very hopeful moment in the butterfly scene.  Was it difficult to make her a rounded character with a sympathetic arc?

HK:  It was very important for me to portray the parts of the mother’s character that from the son’s perspective might be very difficult to understand; the darker parts and of course, the parts where she’s cold to others.  But it wasn’t just about creating a well-rounded, three-dimensional character:  I think the thing that must be avoided by a son after his mother dies is to make a movie that’s an homage to her, that shows only her good parts.  You end up with a sad and kind film.  I think that’s a thing that must be avoided.  I really wanted to be faithful with all parts of my mother’s character and treat them with equal deference.

LMD:  Can you talk about the family dynamics that occurred to you that helped you create Still Walking?

HK:  For me, what I felt is when daughters marry and become mothers themselves; their relationship with their own mother becomes that of two mothers.  In a way, they become equals and I think they actually become closer as it becomes two mothers instead of just mother and daughter.  That’s what happened between my sister and my mother.  But between sons and fathers, I don’t think that’s what really happens and they always in a way remain rivals and that’s always the person that you always want to look the best in front of despite everything else.  That’s a separation that’s never really overcome between sons and fathers.  That’s the kind of parent-child relationship I wanted to show in my film.

LMD:  You have such a brilliant cast.  As the film’s writer, as well as the director, do you allow aspects of the film to change based on the actors’ interpretations?

HK:  There’s basically no improvisation, actually, in this movie.  However, as we’re in the process where we’re doing table work and reading the script with the actors and hearing the lines come out of the actors’ bodies, we did do work to revise some of the lines so they would flow more naturally from that person and sound more like it’s that person speaking.  But all that happens before we get on location, before we start shooting.  That’s something I always do in the process of making my films, but at the point we’re shooting, it’s quite tightly finished.

LMD:  Your latest project, Air Doll, stars one of my favourite actresses, Bae Doo-na.  It looks very different from Still Walking.  Can you tell us a little bit about it?

HK:  In Japan, it’s going to be released in the fall, but as far as overseas release that’s not been determined yet.  The premise of the story is you have a blow-up doll who develop feelings and learns language and falls in love and starts developing a soul and becomes more and more human until she becomes human and that’s who Bae Doo-na portrays.  So, in a way, the premise is totally fantastical, but the core of the film is about what is humanity and what does it mean to have a heart, what does it mean to have a soul? So, these are the questions that the film actually gets at.

~ The Lady Miz Diva

April 29^th, 2009

Click here for our review of Kore-eda's Still Walking

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