He’s a quiet, independent and still one of the major directors in Japan, Shinya Tsukamoto is returning in 2015 with his latest film project, Fires on the Plain (Nobi), portraying a Japanese soldier lost in the middle of the Philippine jungle — it’s not the remake of Kon Ichikawa’s 1959 classic, it’s a new adaptation from the original book published in 1951.
He’s a quiet, independent and still one of the major directors in Japan, Shinya Tsukamoto is returning in 2015 with his latest film project, Fires on the Plain (Nobi), portraying a Japanese soldier lost in the middle of the Philippine jungle — it’s not the remake of Kon Ichikawa’s 1959 classic, it’s a new adaptation from the original book published in 1951.
In this interview conducted by Marc Walkow, the Japanese filmmaker talks about the need to make this antiwar film in today’s Japan — «it’s possible that it’s become necessary to show contemporary Japanese audiences the reality of war through violent means» –, describing his deep interest for this project — «the impact it made on me was as though I’d gone through a war myself» –, while mentioning the production process, the help from volunteers… Tsukamoto also shares his own perception of how his thematic obsessions have evolved through his films, and ultimately, the differences between Ichikawa’s film and version, with this fascinating story «Since the film was shot in Gotenba [outside Tokyo, near Mt. Fuji], he [Ichikawa] had no choice but to use close-up camerawork and focus on the internal drama of its characters». The film will be released in Japan in the summer 2015… 70 years after the end of the WW2!
