#Daihachi Yoshida

[abdulraveman]

2024.03.01 Nishikido Ryo & Lily Franky interviewed by Oricon —

video version: here

My translation of the interview below. Any corrections are welcomed!

Cottontail, an Anglo-Japanese co-production project by a Japanese cast and up-and-coming British director Patrick Dickinson, will be released in cinemas from 1 January today. This road movie spins a tale of family love and rebirth, moving the stage from Tokyo to the UK. Lily Franky (60) plays a clumsy father who has kept his heart closed, and Ryo Nishikido (39) plays his long neglected son. Although they had known each other privately, this is the first time they have worked together as actors. They praised each other's work.

How did you come to know each other?

Lily: We had a mutual acquaintance and got together at a bar.

Nishikido: Yes, we did. After our mutual acquaintance left first, we continued drinking together. Even though we hadn't met each other before (laughs).

Lily: Then it took more than 10 years until we worked together on Cottontail, didn't it?

Nishikido: I was around 24 when we first met.

Lily: Has it been that long?

Have you talked about working together one day?

Lily: Not at all (laughs). We talk about instruments and music all the time, don't we, Nishikido-kun?

Nishikido: Yes, that's true.

Lily: It's not like we contact each other and go out drinking. But we just met each other naturally, somehow.

How did you feel when this collaboration was decided?

Lily: It was a no-brainer, right? (laughs).

Nishikido: Yes, it was.

Lily: The script reading was done remotely because of the pandemic. Even right before I left for London for the shoot, we were talking about something completely different, like, "I heard you recently bought a guitar." I guess he is not the type of person who talks passionately about his work. He never talked about his enthusiasm. He never shakes hands and says, "I'm looking forward to working with you” on the shoot (laughs).

Nishikido: It's a little embarrassing to express your feelings in that way (laughs). However, I have also seen the movie "Gururi no Koto/ All Around Us," in which you co-starred with Tae Kimura, who also appears in this film, and “The Devil's Path/Kyoakuu” with Takayuki Yamada, I have always watched the films in which you have appeared, thinking, "How nice" or "That is such a sneaky thing to do!”. There is a unique atmosphere that only Lily has. I was genuinely happy to work with such a wonderful actor.

Lily: I've seen the films that Nishikido-kun has been in too, but when I saw this finished film, I thought again, 'Wow, he's amazing'. I wasn't really aware of it when we were filming, but Toshi (Nishikido's character's name) explained to me what kind of family the Oshima family was and the relationship between the father, the deceased mother and the son. Without relying on dialogue or narrative devices, he made us understand his feelings towards his mother and his feelings towards his father by the way Toshi acted. It was amazing.

Nishikido: It was all directed by Patrick.

Lily: Toshi is Patrick, isn't he? He has a lot of thoughts about his father, and I think he really wanted Nishikido-kun to play out his thoughts.

I share the feeling that you mentioned earlier, when I see Lily's films and think “That is such a sneaky thing to do!”. How do you always prepare for your roles?

Lily: If the director tells me to, I do. If I'm not told otherwise, I don't. I was in Daihachi Yoshida's The Beautiful Star (2017), and his next film was The Scythian Lamb (2006), starring Nishikido-kun, and did Daihachi-san ask you, “please do XXX”?

Nishikido: As in preparation for the role? No, he didn't tell me to do anything.

Lily: I was told by Daihachi-san to lose weight. Well, if you're told to do that, you do it. I try not to do anything unnecessary as much as possible, because the worst thing that can happen when you create a role for yourself is that it doesn't match the director's image of you. Besides, and this is serious, I've almost never played a role where I have to wear a tie to work. Maybe the directors and producers don't have that kind of image for me anymore.

Nishikido: I have a stronger image of him in roles where he looks like a nice guy but is actually very bad, or where he smiles in a nihilistic way.

Lily: In a film called Analog (2011), I played the role of a coffee shop master who just quietly brewed coffee, and I heard that many people were misled into thinking that he was going to do something someday, probably because he hardly had any dialogue (laughs).

Nishikido: In the first place, when you offer the role to Lily, you don't need to ask him to prepare for the role, do you? I think it works just by having Lily do it. When Daihachi was directing, I think he thought it would be nice if you looked a little thinner.

Did you have received (any preparation instructions) from the director, Patrick?

Lily: There was nothing from Patrick. He said that the script was just a blueprint and that the script wasn't everything, and it was like he was waiting for what came out of the actors themselves playing their respective roles. I think that's exactly what Nishikido-kun's Toshi is about.

What was the director like?

Lily: Very calm.

Nishikido: He's so gentle.

Lily: Really sweet and very polite. Now that I think about it, director Patrick and cameraman Mark (cinematographer Mark Wolfe) were definitely wearing collared clothes to the set every day. We were shooting in England in the middle of summer (in 2021).

Nishikido: Yes, that's true.

Lily: England has a gentleman image, right? There is something old-fashioned about Patrick. He has a sense of politeness that Japanese people have forgotten. Nishikido-kun is old-fashioned too, but in a slightly different way.

When you say Nishikido-san is old-fashioned, what do you mean?

Nishikido: Am I old-fashioned? I don't know...

Lily: When you went to England, you cooked your own rice.

Nishikido: I did cook for myself.

Lily: Even when I told him that the food catered on the set was "delicious," he would say something like, " I'm fine with this," and eat onigiri (rice balls) that he made himself. Sometimes he even made one for Director Patrick. It was a bit samurai-like in that way.

Do you always bring Japanese food when you go abroad for work?

Nishikido: I do some research before I go, and if there is a Japanese restaurant near the hotel where I will be staying, I don't bring Japanese food with me, but this time I had a quarantine period (5 days) due to the pandemic, and I knew I would definitely want to eat some rice, so I brought some.

Lily: You were trying to eat up all the rice before you returned to Japan.

Nishikido: I ate it all up (laughs).

Would you like to work together again?

Nishikido: Of course! I'd like to play a role that isn't father and son next time, and I'd also like to play father and son again.

Lily: I would love to make a film together. This time we played a very serious father and son, so maybe next time playing a foolish father and son would be good.

[shiningwizard]

Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers! (Yoshida Daihachi, 2007)

The only way out of a small town and family is death, but even then you have the indignity of your funeral portrait hung up to watch over the continuing abasement of remaining kin. Deliciously cruel and fun but the dark soul within me thought it could have gone further.

[ltcinsuranceshopper1]

Will Field Workplace Rebound? Captain America, Black Bag, Mickey 17 Battle

Payal Kapadia‘s Indian co-production “All We Think about as Mild” gained greatest movie on the 18th Asian Movie Awards in Hong Kong, capping a exceptional journey that started with a Grand Prix win at Cannes final yr. Yoshida Daihachi gained greatest director for “Teki Cometh,” whereas Sean Lau gained greatest actor for “Papa” and Shahana Goswami greatest actress for “Santosh.” Sandhya Suri…

[3minutesstudy]

‘Teki Cometh’ slides in and out of a hypnotic dreamworld

Kyozo Nagatsuka gives a finessed performance as an elderly gentleman who is not as gentle as he seems in Daihachi Yoshida’s drama.

[recentlyheardcom]

Director Daihachi Yoshida Talks Tokyo Film Fest Comp Entry Teki Cometh

In its deliberate pacing and thoughtfulness, Daihachi Yoshida’s new movie Teki Cometh is attribute of the Japanese filmmaker’s profession. The function, which has its world premiere on the 2024 Tokyo Worldwide Movie Competition, and is competing within the competition’s major competitors, is one more literary adaptation from a director who’s an avid reader. “Proper at the beginning of the…

[yxsu]

PERMANENT NOBARA パーマネント野ばら | DAIHACHI YOSHIDA (2010)

[cinemaronin]

パーマネント野ばら Permanent Nobara (2010)  directed by Daihachi Yoshida

video edit by Denis La Funk (Cine Ronin) https://www.youtube.com/c/DenisLaFunk  

[mokkung]

（短評）映画『騙し絵の牙』

（引用元）

『騙し絵の牙』（2021年日本）

社長の急逝により一気に権力争いが表面化した大手出版社を舞台に、その争いに巻き込まれたカルチャー誌の編集長がとった奇策とは・・・💨

苦境に立つ出版業界を題材にしたトリッキーなサスペンス映画ですが、本当に面白いものや価値のあるものとは何か示そうとする最後の着地が素敵

良いヤツなのか何か企んでるヤツなのか不透明な大泉洋演じる速水と、本が好きで真っ直ぐな松岡茉優演じる高野という上司部下コンビのバランスが良いですし、どちらもハマり役‼️

複雑な話なので、出だしが悪いと分かりにくくなりそうですが、キレキレの音楽とテンポ良くかつ整理された見せ方が良い👌

キャストが皆素晴らしいのですが、とりわけ池田エライザですよ‼️ 可愛いと持ち上げられてるけど、実は内に秘めたハードコアなものを持っている美人タレントという役は、現実の彼女とも重ねてしまうようでとても魅力的😲

あとは國村隼ですよ👍 あんた最高だよとしか言いようが無い💪

⇒予告編

⇒Amazon

[cultfaction]

Preview- Funuke: Show Some Love You Losers! (Bluray)

Preview- Funuke: Show Some Love You Losers! (Bluray)

Quirky black comedy from director Daihachi Yoshida (The Kirishima Thing), about the rivalry between two sisters, set amidst the backdrop of rural Japan. Aspiring, but cash-strapped, actress Sumika (Eriko Sato) returns home to the village of Ishikawa to attend her parents’ funeral and renews her feud with younger sister Kiyomi (Aimi Satsukawa), who previously damaged Sumika’s reputation by…

[abdulraveman]

Nishikido Ryo & Lily Franky

Cinemas+ 29.02.2024

Below is my interpretation of their interview. Any corrections are welcomed!

The film "Cottontail" will be released on Friday, March 1st.

The film is a Japanese-British co-production that won the Best First Feature Film Award at the Rome International Film Festival. Akiko, his wife of many years, left her husband Kenzaburo a wish: "I want you to scatter my ashes on Lake Windermere in England. To fulfill his wife's wish, Kenzaburo travels to England with his estranged son, Satoshi, and his family. However, the father and son, who have a long-standing rift with each other, clash at every opportunity. ......

Lily Franky and Ryo Nishikido play the father-son relationship in this film. When they met at the interview site, they shook hands happily and firmly. What is the bond they have built despite this being their first time working together?

This is Nishikido-san's first film role since Hitsuji no Ki/Scythian Lamb (2018).

Nishikido: The filming itself was in 2021. Speaking for myself, I received this offer in 2019 while I was going independent and going through a lot of other things.

I heard that Lily was going to be in the film and that Patrick was the director, so I said I would love to be a part of it. It was a great honour, so I did what I could do to the best of my ability.

I think this is your first time working together, how was it?

Lily: He is an actor that I really liked for a long time. I think the first drama I watched was Last Friends. Also, I really enjoyed the film “Hitsuji no Ki/Scythian Lamb” directed by Daihachi Yoshida. Even though he was an idol at the time, I would say he played an offbeat passive role. Rather than a kira-kira/flashy role….

Nishikido: It's more like ordinary.

Lily: It's a role where you hold things inside all the time and endure. This time, Toshi also holds his thoughts in, and does it clumsily and earnestly. It's a very difficult role, and one that only Ryo-chan could play. Also, the director is British, so although there are Japanese people in the film, there are a lot of sensibilities that Japanese people don't have.

Ryo: Yes, there were.

Lily: For example, the scene where Toshi wanted to talk more with his father is a relationship that we often see in European films, but not so often in Japanese father-son relationships. Perhaps the image I had in mind was having Ryo-chan expressing Patrick's thoughts and feelings (about his father). But it is quite difficult to make that exchange work. It kind of makes me cry a little when I see the look on Toshi's face, since there are so many scenes of the two of them talking together.

Nishikido: There's one at the end, isn't there?

Lily: And this old man (Kenzaburo) doesn't talk much, so it's mostly Toshi talking.

Nishikido: Certainly, Toshi talked earnestly, and Kenzaburo was just mumbling in response.

Lily: That’s why I'm really glad it was Nishikido-kun. He made it very easy for me to do it. Because of this son, this fluffy old man looks like a father.

Ryo: For Toshi, she was his mother, but he (Kenzaburo) has lost the love of his life. I think it's understandable for him to feel that way. Even though there was a feeling of 'we have to move on”, it's not something to hurry someone to do. I think there are parts that are sorted out little by little through conflict, so I think there are many things that people… want them to do, but above all, I think there is an understanding that they are in pain.

Lily: Also, I still think that Toshi's presence explains things that are not explained. I get the sense that he must have been a mother's child, and that his father neglected his family using work as an excuse, and even having to urge him to attend her funeral….

Nishikido: That's true from the very beginning (laughs).

Lily: I think he's always been like this. He wasn't even that successful of a novelist, but when pressed by Toshi, he would say, "No, I've been busy." But this is like listening to the excuses of fathers all over the world. Toshi, on the contrary, is trying not to be this kind of parent, or rather, a role model. And he's a caring & attentive father.

He seemed like a good father, right?

Nishikido: …... I mean, he's trying to be.

Did you two talk about anything before you started filming?

Nishikido: We didn't talk about anything in particular.

Lily: “Have you met Kazuyoshi Saito recently?” Or something like that (laughs).

Nishikido: hahaha, I think the pain of quarantine was still a powerful experience for us to go through together.

Lily: That was just ‘the suspension bridge effect.’

Nishikido: I thought everyone was enduring it. ...... (laughs).

Lily: Yeah, I was saying that it would be a good story for the interview, because he's so old-fashioned. He doesn't want to eat British food at all. He brings rice from Japan, cooks it and makes miso soup.

Nishikido: That’s right, that’s right. Every morning, I make it myself.

Lily: The catering looks delicious, but he doesn't eat it, all he eats is the rice balls he made himself. And when the quarantine is over and we can leave, he goes to a Japanese restaurant in London.

Nishikido: We also went to pubs. We drank beer and I felt British.

Lily: It was also interesting to go to the Lake District after a week in London. But a lot of the restaurants were closed during the pandemic, so it was difficult to eat dinner.

Nishikido: That’s why I just made do with rice balls (laughs).

Lily: Maybe you were right (laughs).

By the way, how much rice did you bring?

Nishikido: They came in a set of 10 units of 1-go (180 grams) packets of rice. Maybe 2 or 3 sacks.......

That's a lot (laughs).

Nishikido: That was enough to keep me alive (laughs).

Lily: You don't look like someone who would eat rice balls by themselves that much, do you? You don't look like someone who would be making rice balls, do you?

Nishikido: I was making them by wrapping the rice in plastic wrap.

Lily: I thought this person is really interesting.

Nishikido: That was the one thing I couldn't compromise on.

Kenzaburo and Toshi are both kind but there are still some differences between them. I know this happens more or less in every family, but what do you think is the best way for a family to stay happy?

Lily: Kenzaburo is more like a Showa father. He leaves family matters to his wife because of his work, and he doesn't have the words to express himself. But it's not easy, there are not many Japanese people who have the mentality and can communicate well with their families in terms of language. But as Toshi said in this film, after all, there are some things you can't understand unless you put them into words. Nishikido-kun, you actually get on well with your family, don't you?

Nishikido: We get on really well.

Lily: Do you talk a lot when you go home?

Nishikido: I started spending less and less time with my family from the age of 14-15, and at my worst it was once a year. If I wanted to, I could actually go see them, but they're in Osaka.

So right after I finished filming this film, I went back to Osaka and lived there for a while. But even though I was in Osaka, I didn't go to see them a lot, so I wondered why I didn't go to see them when I could. I felt guilty about that.

To be honest, I don't know how many more times I will see my parents, so I think I should talk to them a lot while I can, and have a drink with them. So the secret is not to feel guilty.

Lily: There are people like Nishikido-kun who realise this while their parents are still alive, and there are people who realise it after their parents have passed away. But no matter how much filial piety you have for your parents, you will definitely regret it.

Nishikido: That's right.

Lily: So maybe it's better to do it for yourself, not for your parents anymore.

Finally. There was a line in the film where Kenzaburo says that he is always in his own world, and Toshi says that he wanted to be included in that world. What do the two of you value in your own world?

Lily: There are a lot of these people. I am also a hobbyist and have a lot to immerse myself in.

Nishikido: I wonder what it is....... I think it's about doing what you want to do, and doing it the way you want to do it. I don't live a pristine life, and of course there are many areas where I let my desires get the better of me.

So, in the end, I just vaguely hope that when I die, people will cry and laugh because they will miss me. To be honest, I haven’t had any thoughts on the matter while I'm still alive, I guess I can't think of anything right now.

Lily: I have a similar feeling, but from another person’s point of view, it would probably be like, “They didn't let me into that world”. So it's quite difficult to fulfil Toshi's wish.

For example, it is difficult for me to ask to be included in a world where my parents & family are working so hard.

Nishikido: There's also the timing, isn't there?

Lily: But I guess the people you see in the news overseas are thinking the same things and facing the same problems as the ones you mention in this film. When I think that in the end the people in that battlefield and the people performing here now must have the same family problems, the world seems lovelier.

[gregor-samsung]

紙の月 [Pale Moon] (Daihachi Yoshida - 2014)

[vagabondedlife]

The Scythian Lamb - Daihachi Yoshida

[ot9000]

騙し絵の牙

Directed by Daihachi Yoshida　吉田大八 2021 Japan

[sunacof]

Amazon Primeで「羊の木」

終わり方はいまいちだったけど、やっぱり松田龍平は良い。優香もはまり役だった。

“The Scythian Lamb” on Amazon Prime