Director Yuhiko Tsutsumi

Interview

Director Tsutsumi Were you familiar with the original manga?

I had read it and found it thoroughly entertaining. I can identify with many elements of the story because I come from the same generation as the characters. The way kids played back then and the way they were excited by new music. The first electric guitar Kenji ever owned was the yellow Greco Telecaster given to him by his sister. He plays it as an adult to put him back in the mindscape of his youth. It’s the same guitar as my very first guitar!

Did you have a credo when you made this movie?

To be the Original Manga Fundamentalist! The manga was so good that I figured I’d be better off duplicating it rather than changing anything. I want you to watch the movie with the manga in your hand for comparison. I guess you can’t because it’s too dark in the cinema (laughs). I used manga pages as storyboards and even duplicated the camera angles of each frame. We selected scenes from the manga and photocopied the pages. The crew carried those pages around to know what kind of shots we wanted for the scene.

When I was a kid, there was a manga magazine called Boken-O (Adventure King) and at one time it had a free attachment that came with it. It was called “The Moving Monsters.” It was really just monsters drawn on a sheet of paper but you could create the illusion that the monsters were moving with your hands. It was such a low-tech gimmick, but breathtaking. I was aiming at a similar kind of surprise with 20th Century Boys, the movie.

Your movies are known for their unique style and off-beat humour. Did you have to restrain yourself in this film?

I’m doing my thing, too. But these shots get in the way in the editing room (laughs). The world woven in the original manga, on which the whole movie is based on, is like an impenetrable fortress. Just by changing a little thing may result in a disastrous misdirection. The whole story is tightly spun like an intricate web. For example, if a finger in the manga was pointing this way, it has to point the same way in the movie. Or the meaning of the action might change. So I had to diligently follow the manga. The original manga is very cinematic, but manga language is different from movie language, so I had to sometimes change things to make it more cinematic.

Director Tsutsumi The original story has an undercurrent of the Rock spirit. Is it something you feel close to?

The underlying theme of this movie is Rock. It’s a Rock ‘n’ Roll movie in disguise. I put much energy in the FRIEND’s Concert scene and the scenes in which Kenji plays his guitar. The story revolves around a man who’s rock-star dream never took off. A man who is living a disillusioned life. He’s not sure which way he should go. He soon remembers what used to fuel his passion. The scene of Kenji playing the guitar on the shopping street on the eve of destruction is symbolic. The guitar that appears in the scene is a Martin guitar, a very famous instrument. It’s actually my guitar. I always wanted one, so I bought it a couple of years ago.

The film deals with many other cultural elements.

There are so many sub-themes. The story describes the process of a religious cult taking over the nation in a similar way to Nazism. It deals with the theme of lost childhood and a loss of innocence in a manner similar to the movie, Stand By Me. It examines Tokyo around the turn of the century. It forecasts the future to come and it looks back at the past, that of the 70’s. Each element makes a good movie by itself. The original manga is drawn frame by frame and reflects a tremendous, fantastic imagination. It’s like a tapestry mural on an epic scale. I wanted to pay homage to the original manga and shoot the movie with as much imagination as I could.

So much happens in the first film of the trilogy. What are your thoughts on that?

The first film is inconclusive but without it, there would be no second or third film. The first cut of the first film came at about 2 hours and 50 minutes. It was edited down to its barest minimum and at this stage it’s about 2 hours and 22 minutes. It’s a trilogy with a monstrous budget and it became also monstrous in length.

What was your response to such a huge budget?

I figured that I’d never have another chance to be involved in such a big project. So I decided to make the best of it and have as much fun as I could with this huge undertaking.

How about the star cast?

I remember Rob Reiner commenting on his experience directing The Bucket List. He said he was very satisfied with the performances of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I feel just the same. But I also felt very tense because there were always new actors to deal with every day

Any special opinion about 20th Century Boy, the T.Rex song?

T.Rex was responsible for the entire genre of glam rock and I think they were like fantastic flowers that could have only bloomed in those days.

If T.Rex are the fantastic flowers of Rock history, what do you think your movie will be?

It’ll be the biggest event movie of its time. The way it so perfectly duplicates the brilliant original manga is something new. I can reflect a lot of my personal history in this movie, and I believe that it will stimulate the memories of the audience.

How significant is the 20th Century to you?

It’s very important... How important? About 90% of me is made of it!

Profile

Yukihiko Tsutsumi was born in 1955 in Aichi, Japan. His directorial debut was in 1980 with an episode of an omnibus movie, Eigo ga nanda/To Hell with English, in the movie called, Bakayaro/I’m Plenty Mad. He then moved to New York and directed music videos and high-definition productions. He also directed Homeless with Yoko Ono in this period. In 1994 Tsutsumi joined the founding members of Office Crescendo, Inc., a production company so he could direct a wider variety of material. His broadened expertise includes movies, TV dramas, music videos, commercial advertisements, and publications.

Recently Tsutsumi directed movies such as, Maboroshi no Yamataikoku/The Lost Legend of Yama Kingdom (2008); Ginmakuban Sushi Oji/Sushi King Goes to New York (2008); Hotai Kurabu/The Bandage Club (2007); Jigyaku no Uta/Happily Ever After (2007); Taitei no Tsurugi/The Sword of Alexander (2007); TRICK, the Movie 2 (2006) and Ashita no Kioku/Memories of Tomorrow (2006).