Beloved independent filmmaker Tsukamoto Shinya gave a masterclass at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), presenting the highlights of his career as well as his latest film, the English-language feature “Mr. Nelson, Have You Killed People?” talked about.
Tsukamoto, who is perhaps most famous abroad for the 1989 film “Tetsuo: Iron Man”, candidly explained that he prefers to work outside the studio system whenever possible. Moderator Ichiyama Shozo, TIFF’s director of programming, called “Tetsuo” a “shock”; this was less due to body horror than it was to the fact that a film of this quality could emerge from the Japanese independent film scene at the time.
Tsukamoto recalled shooting the film in 16mm before the digital VFX era.
“No CG. We had some tokusatsu [practical special effects] technology at the time but it didn’t use any of that, these used things were being thrown out on the street and we basically glued them together [Taguchi Tomorowo]”think of it as a really crude stop motion,” the director said of the effect of Taguchi gliding through the streets.
Tsukamoto said that the film took about a year to make, but “the time we spent with the crew was shorter, towards the end I was working alone most of the time – it’s like sparks are flying at the end of the film” [of the clip]“This was something I worked on alone.”
He said the success of “Tetsuo” took him to film festivals abroad and led to his second feature-length horror film, “Goblin Hiruko,” which now has a higher budget.
“’Tetsuo’ was being shown in small theaters, but we were attracting attention because of the audiences who came to watch it, and I got an offer to do the movie. [‘Hiruko’]he said.
Asked if Ichiyama felt more pressure making a larger-scale film, Tsukamoto said he mostly pulled it off, in part due to the time he spent working on commercials.
Ichiyama noted that Tsukamoto has consistently produced films such as “Bullet Ballet” and “Tokyo Fist” independently over the years.
“I got offers [from studios] “But I didn’t want to be a director for hire, I didn’t think that was the right fit for me, and there are certain things you want to do as a filmmaker,” the director said. “You want to be able to play with the material to maintain that interest, that initial drive. Without this, I thought it would be very difficult for me because I’m not that strong-willed. “I think my drive as a creator is stronger with my own material, so I went down this path.”
Tsukamoto said Ooka Shohei’s 2014 war film “Fires on the Plain,” based on Ichikawa Kon’s 1959 novel, was shot independently. Part of the movie was shot in the Philippines, part in Okinawa, and the rest in Saitama Prefecture.
“Before this, even though it was in the independent film space, our team had grown and of course we had a great system where we could pay fees accordingly, and we had done ‘Gemini’ with Sedic. [International] And ‘[A] ‘Snake of June,’ and ‘Nightmare Detective’ and ‘Tetsuo: The Bullet Man,'” said Tsukamoto. “Thanks to this work, my team at the company was always moving and growing, but we had kind of come to a standstill.”
He said “Fires on the Plain” was “a movie he always wanted to adapt.” “[I] I wanted to do this from my teens to my 20s and 30s, so I went to the Philippines to try [to] I’m financing in my 40s and 50s.
Determined to make the film, he went so far as to try distracting himself.
“The people involved, it was very hard work for them so I wouldn’t want to do it again, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I thought it was something I could do on my own with SNS.” [social media]”He said. “Initially, I was thinking of showing it in a small number of theaters.”
He said he was eventually persuaded to show the film in 80 theaters, starting with 40 and expanding later.
The conversation soon turned to “Mr. Nelson, Have You Killed People?”, Tsukamoto’s second English-language film after 2009’s “Tetsuo: The Bullet Man.” He jumped into the topic. The film, which competed in Venice in September, is about New Yorker Allen Nelson, who joined the Marines at the age of 18 and is haunted by his actions in Vietnam. The cast includes Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush and Lily Franky.
Tsukamoto said he came across the story while filming “Fires on the Plain,” but COVID-19 and the subsequent Hollywood actors’ strike caused delays long enough to release “Shadow of Fire,” which he had originally planned after “Mr. Nelson.” In total, the process took about seven years.
Following the abbreviated career talk, the audience Q&A delved a little deeper into Tsukamoto’s filmmaking philosophies and his views on contemporary independent film.
When asked to give advice to young filmmakers, he said that in his youth a large portion of the budget went to film processing “because we shot on 8mm and 16mm film and we wanted to make a theatrical film.” He said that thanks to digital money can now go to other places.
“Everything is a canvas now, [whether] this is done by a grammar school student or Van Gogh,” he said, citing YouTube as the north star for what can be learned and achieved without a budget.
Asked for his thoughts on upcoming works, Tsukamoto turned to “Mr. Nelson.”
“The theme of war was not something I would dwell on for so long, I would have been happy to create ‘Fires on the Plain’,” he said. “But it’s the state of the world that keeps me focused on the war.”
The question referenced an earlier interview in which he mentioned having new ideas he wanted to explore. “I think I made that comment in an attempt to alleviate some of the darkness I was experiencing,” Tsukamoto said. “I don’t think I can get myself out of this.”
When asked how he balances multiple roles behind the camera, Tsukamoto attributed this in part to efficient communication, knowing exactly what to shoot, reshoot or cut, and time management. But he also said he enjoys taking on those responsibilities.
“Filmmaking is the accumulation of everything I love,” he said. That’s why it’s involved on so many levels, rather than just saving money, but it also has practical benefits.
“I studied art in high school and college, and I love drawing. I stopped drawing when I became a filmmaker, but I use the same brain power when composing and blocking,” he said. “It feels very close to drawing or painting to me.”