- What inspired you to become a film director?
- Most of your films share the theme of "family." Is there any reason for this?
- Is there anyone who made a big impact on your life?
- What's the next plan for a movie?
- What cameras do you use?
- What time of the day do you prefer?
- Is there anything you keep using with affection?
- When do you give a title to a movie?
- What's the best gift you ever received?
- If you were not a film director, what do you think you were doing?
- What's your favorite movie?
- Who's your favorite film director?
- Who's your favorite author?
- I guess you travel a lot. Where do you think the most impressive place you ever visited?
- How did you spend your school days?
- Is there a place you like to move to live in future?
- What's your favorite color?
- When is your favorite season of the year?
- Are you good at cooking?
- Do you have any pets?
- Do you have any religious faith?
- What inspired you to become a film director?
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I wanted a job I could continue for a lifetime.
When I had to decide on my future career in the third year at high school, I was just wondering what I should do. The school recommended me to go on to a physical education and sports college, with the admission on recommendation.
During my high school days, playing basketball day and night, we trained as hard as we could: we had to eat five meals a day to keep our body strength. Our high school is located in northern Nara prefecture, and we used to run 10 kilos to the border of Kyoto. We also exercised with the weight training equipment while drinking protein shakes. To prepare for the left-side attack, we ate meals on the left at table, and the like, we did as if we were sport-cartoon characters such as Hoshi Hyuuma (baseball cartoon) and Ayuhara Kozue (volleyball). I got some experience participating in a National Athletic Meet as a basketball player for Nara prefecture.
But at that moment, I came up with this very idea; until when I could do this? Hmm… maybe 30 years old, at longest. And then, what should I do for the rest of my life? It made me very anxious. I cannot be an active player forever. That's the hardest part. I wanted to get involved in basketball, but not as a trainer or coach. Then I thought, "Let's find a job that I can stay in the spotlight!" In a flash of sudden, I thought of "manufacturing." I think I wanna create things and keep doing it until 80 and 90 years old.
In this way, more or less, I made up my mind to pursue a career for film-making. Of course, I had no idea about film at that time as I was just an athletic girl. And so, I first decided to go for TV production. However, the school I entered specially focuses on film-producing, and it gradually, and eventually, dragged me into the film world.
- Most of your films share the theme of "family." Is there any reason for this?
-
Family gives me the clearest idea of human bonds.
And when I think of my own history (*), it makes me feel a strong temptation to realize things that I could not achieve in my childhood.(*) My parents were living separate before my mother gave birth to me, and divorced when I was one and a half years old. And I was raised by my aunt's family (my grandparents were also divorced, so that my mother could not ask them for help). My aunt didn't have a child, so she and her husband took care of me like their real daughter. And I was adopted by them when I was in the fourth grade, and I officially took their surname, Kawase. My adopted father passed away when I was 14. Since then, I have been living with my adopted mother alone.
- Is there anyone who made a big impact on your life?
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My adopted father. I used to call him "grandpa."
- What's the next plan for a movie?
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Now I'm working on a new film. An elderly person is the protagonist.
- What cameras do you use?
-
FUJICA Single 8, SONY PC9 DIGICAM, CANON IXY Digital Camera, FM2 SLR
- What time of the day do you prefer?
-
Around nightfall. I like the time when people go home.
- Is there anything you keep using with affection?
-
Japanese brush-pen I got for my birthday. It's very handy to write and carry around.
- When do you give a title to a movie?
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At the very beginning, even before finishing up the script.
(*),
- What's the best gift you ever received?
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The flowers I received on the no special, ordinary days.
- If you were not a film director, what do you think you were doing?
-
Working at a flower shop.
- What's your favorite movie?
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Le Fils (The Son, 2002)
- Who's your favorite film director?
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Victor Erice, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Dardenne Brothers
- Who's your favorite author?
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Kawakami Hiromi, Yoshimoto Banana, Ohnari Yuko, Takano Fumiko.
- I guess you travel a lot. Where do you think the most impressive place you ever visited?
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Sanktpeterburg in Russia, and Jhilava in Czech.
- How did you spend your school days?
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To tell the truth, I was a bad girl during junior high. I was a captain of the basketball team at high school, eating 5 meals a day, playing basketball all day. I did all bad things most bad students do.
- Is there a place you like to move to live in future?
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Okinawa, for longevity.
- What's your favorite color?
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Yellow. Years ago when I sent a postcard to the music show "Best Ten" requesting Toshi-chan's (Tahara Toshihiko's) song, I used a pen name "Kawase Kiiro." (Kiiro is yellow in Japanese.) I like yellow as much as this.
- When is your favorite season of the year?
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Summer. All my feature films were shot during summer. I'm extremely sensitive to cold in winter as much as I feel like my brain's gonna freeze.
- Are you good at cooking?
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I like cooking. I always cook baby food for my son, Michuki. I never bought him commercial baby food.
- Do you have any pets?
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I used to. I had a Golden-Retriever "Waon" and a Pomeranian "Cami." Oh, now I have a goldfish, and it's 20 cm big.
- Do you have any religious faith?
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I greet my departed grandpa every morning.
