E-book: 'Battle with the Story!' Otomo-style: The Essence of Direction (1)

＜ From "Ryoma Den" to "Rurouni Kenshin" ＞

 

Takasaki: Mr. Otomo is the most noteworthy film director today. After leaving NHK in April 2011 to go freelance, his first film as director was "Rurouni Kenshin." I assisted on "Ryoma-den" when he was at NHK, and since meeting him then, I've had several opportunities to talk with him. He's quite an extraordinary person—crazy in a good way, I'd say. He fights like he's testing how far a human can go. I personally think he pours all that energy into his creative work.

Looking back at his NHK works like "Shirasu Jiro," "Hagetaka," and "Ryoma Den," the sheer weight and substance of what he creates is immense. Today, I'd love to understand where that weight comes from.

 

Otomo: Well, hello, I'm the crazy Otomo (laughs). When you pour your heart into creating something, there inevitably come moments where you can't help but go a bit mad, and you get misunderstood in all sorts of ways. But I've managed to survive this far, so I guess I'm okay. Though I can't afford to let my guard down (laughs).

Ever since we met on "Ryōma-den," I've respected Takasaki-san as a fellow creative comrade. I'm looking forward to having a frank and open conversation today. Please go easy on me.

 

Takasaki: First, let's watch the making-of footage for "Rurouni Kenshin" and then talk about your directing philosophy and approach to creation, Otomo-san.

How many months did it take to shoot this?

 

Otomo: The shooting period was four months, but the actual filming days were 54. We gathered a lot of popular actors, so there were inevitable gaps between schedules. But we also had to rehearse the fight scenes, so any free time was spent solely on practice, practice, practice. Ultimately, a film of this nature requires that total amount of time. We started shooting the opening scene on August 2, 2011, and stayed in Kyoto for four months until late November.

 

Takasaki: I got to see the finished version a bit early, and it didn't feel like a Japanese film at all. It gave me the same feeling as finishing a great Western movie. I think it was probably the intensity, or the sheer amount of effort poured into it, that I felt with my whole body.

The original manga for this film ran from 1994 to 1999. It was a pioneer among character-driven manga, became a source for the cosplay phenomenon, and essentially created a whole culture. Adapting such a legendary manga must have been incredibly challenging. I'm impressed you took it on.

 

Otomo: As you mentioned earlier, during my time at NHK, I tended to make socially conscious dramas based on real stories. When I decided to leave the company, I received several project proposals, and one of them was Rurouni Kenshin.

The original work was an action-entertainment series in Weekly Shonen Jump. Apparently, when it first serialized, it was considered taboo in boys' magazines because period pieces set in the Meiji era weren't supposed to be popular. Yet, unusually for a boys' magazine, it unexpectedly gained popularity, especially among female readers, and became a hit. The art style is also very soft and gentle, not typical of male-oriented manga. So initially, it felt like the furthest thing from my previous style.

Generally, manga characters are drawn with significant stylization, far removed from reality. The more you try to faithfully translate that into live-action, the more likely it is to fail. As an audience member, I've seen plenty of those failures myself. So, I came to believe the key to live-action adaptation lies in how you ground the characters when they become real people. That balance between meticulousness and boldness—it's actually where the director's skill and ability are most tested. Precisely because I was thinking about taking the next step after becoming freelance, I started to see it differently: this was a great opportunity to take on a challenge.

 

＜Being Faithful to the Original Work＞

 

Takasaki: How much did you discuss with the original author regarding the film adaptation?

 

Otomo: I think the real challenge in adapting something isn't the source material itself, but how to face the fanbase beyond it. I'm basically the type who wants to take things head-on, but I explored extremely carefully what it means to confront passionate fans head-on. And I figured if the original author says it's good, the fans will have to shut up (laughs).

I had detailed discussions with the original author, Nobuhiro Watsuki, starting from the differences between 3D and 2D. For example, with 2D manga, readers flip through the pages, go back if they don't understand, and it's a medium they can control within their own world. All the text is visualized; information doesn't come in through the ears.

On the other hand, 3D is completely different. Film is a time-based art. The number of people involved is also vastly different: I think a manga might have around 10 people working on it, but for a film like Rurouni Kenshin, there are 600 staff members. If you include extras, the total number of people involved reaches 4,000 or 5,000. Compared to that, the world of manga is one where the original author can control everything, in a way. When 600 people are involved, each has their own opinions and will. Actors naturally voice their thoughts, and countless things arise that I never imagined. Sometimes the very nature of this process gives birth to the work's power. Film truly is a "comprehensive art form." Its very nature as a medium is entirely different. Within this process, the first point of agreement between the original author, Kazuki Watsuki, and me was that there would be no CG.

This manga pioneered Japanese action entertainment, so the biggest challenge in live-action adaptation is the action. No matter how superhuman they are, it must be real, flesh-and-blood samurai action. I'd been thoroughly exposed to action depictions in Hollywood and had secretly studied the action genre. I couldn't do any of that at NHK, so I'd always wanted to challenge myself with action if I got the chance. So, well, it was exactly what I wanted.

 

Takasaki: Mr. Otomo, you studied film directing and screenwriting in Los Angeles for two years starting in 1997. Was that period a major influence?

 

Otomo: Yes. Struggling with language made me deeply appreciate the power of action films that transcend words. At the same time, it was a period where I truly felt that while words couldn't cross the ocean, action could be my weapon to reach the other side. I believe it was around that time that Jackie Chan's 'Red Bronx' topped the box office. Chinese filmmakers like John Woo and Tsui Hark were using action as their weapon—even though their language wasn't particularly fluent—to come to Hollywood and make films at the forefront.

Considering that "the roots of movies are movement, motion, and emotion," action has always been the foundation of visual expression, right back to the silent film era of Keaton and Chaplin. So, during my time studying abroad, I reaffirmed that the fundamentals of acting and filmmaking are rooted in action. I wanted to master action within the world of Rurouni Kenshin.

But then I had to think about how to achieve that. Take Spider-Man, for example. He has spider DNA, so he can move superhumanly, and he wears a Spider-Man suit, so even CG-like textures are acceptable. But Kenshin is a samurai. I wanted to focus on human movement, on human realism.

Plus, he wears traditional Japanese clothing. Considering the movement of his kimono and hair, trying to express those unpredictable, uncalculated movements with CG would be incredibly difficult. The more I thought about it, the less viable CG action seemed. People sweat when they move; they get out of breath. Thinking about that, it became clear we had to do it with real actors.

Actually, when you approach it this way, from a relatively realistic perspective, the actual method pretty much becomes set. Within that, it's about how to give the character edge. The crucial mistake to avoid is making it cosplay. Well, you could rephrase it as: if we're doing it, let's make it the highest-level cosplay (laughs).

Even if you say, "This is faithful to the original and realistic," and put the costume on him, if it doesn't suit Takeru Sato (hereafter referred to without honorifics) playing Kenshin and he thinks it looks uncool, he won't be able to act with full confidence. Being faithful to the original and being sincere to the original are different things. Manga artists are professionals at manga, not professionals at adapting it to film, right? That line needs to be drawn sharply, both within myself and within the project. Instead of setting a line saying "Trust me from here on out," I promise to absolutely capture the spirit and core essence within the original work. For that part, I ask for your trust. For everything else, trust me. Actors, regardless of physical resemblance, approach characters through the correct method of building them from the inside out. Then, even if they don't look alike at first, strangely enough, they gradually start to resemble the character.

Take Masaharu Fukuyama in "Ryoma Den" (hereafter referred to without honorifics). The real Ryoma couldn't have been that handsome; Takeda Tetsuya was probably closer to the actual look (laughs). But when Fukuyama Masaharu properly re-experienced Ryoma's way of life and approached it correctly from within, somehow he became Ryoma himself. With Iwasaki Yataro, Kagawa Teruyuki doesn't resemble him at all physically (laughs), but when he approaches that way of life head-on and with conviction, he ends up resembling him to everyone's surprise.

(To be continued)

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