Guest in Focus: Yu Kajino

Reflecting on One of the Largest Catastrophes in Japanese history using 8mm

After the screening of his short film “Be Still, My Beating Heart” in 2007, Yu Kajino is attending the Nippon Connection Filmfestival again with his first feature film Ahum. After his high school graduation, KAJINO started making films with a cheap video camera. He founded the production company Caterpillar Films and created a series of short films after graduating from college.

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When and how did you first get into filmmaking?

“It started after high school, when my friends and I started playing around by shooting and editing videos with a cheap video camera and iMovie.”

 

Where did you get the idea for your latest film?

“From what I saw and felt living in TOKYO after the Great East Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011, and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident.
At the time of the earthquake, I was in the 6th floor of a building in Tokyo; it was shaking terribly, and I became fully aware of death; of worries and fear about earthquakes and radioactivity and death; of the idea that worries and fear are the emotions that affect us the strongest; of my conviction that we have to face the future and re-think and criticize ourselves for living so complacently the “convenient and comfortable life” that the government / nuclear village [Japan’s pro-nuclear institutions] offered us.”

 

What was the biggest challenge while making your latest film?

“The whole process of making a full-length feature film, all 8 mm, black and white, entirely with ADR recording, and release it theatrically.”

 

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映画作りを始めたのはいつ頃ですか? どのようなきっかけでしたか？

高校卒業後、安価なビデオカメラとiMovieで友人たちと映像を撮って編集して遊び始めたのがきっかけ。

新作のアイディアはどこで得たものですか。

2011年3月11日の東日本大震災、そして福島第一原子力発電所事故 以後の「東京」で暮らす中で見てきたことや感じたこと。はその瞬間、東京のビルの6階にいて、ものすごい揺れを感じ、「死」を意識した。地震、放射能、死、に対する不安や恐怖。不安や恐怖は最も強く人を突き動かす感情であるということ。国・原子力村が提供する”便利・快適な暮らし”にあぐらをかいて生きてきた自身を見つめ直し自己批判し、未来を見据えなければならない、という想い。

今回の映画制作・撮影中での一番大きいなチャレンジは何でしたか？

全編8ミリモノクロ撮影 オールアフレコ で長編劇映画を撮って劇場公開するということ。

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