Award-wining filmmaker Ryota Nakano visits Manila for the screening of his film "Her Love Boils Bathwater". Philippine Tatler asks him some things about his captivating masterpiece and his two cents on Japanese cinema
After graduating university, he entered the Japan Film School and found himself immersed with the fun of filmmaking. His graduation project As We Go Cheering Our Flaming Lives (2000) won the Japan Film School's Imamura Award, and also was recognised at the TAMA NEW WAVE Grand Prix. After graduating, he went on to become assistant film director and television director, and finally after six years he produced another film Rocket Punch (2006), which won seven awards, from Hiroshima and Fukui Grand Prix Film Festivals. In 2008, he was selected by the Culture Centre's Young Film Maker Project, and his film The Sparkling Amber (2008) shot on 35mm-film, received a high evaluation. In 2012, his full-length film Capturing Dad (2012), at the SKIP City International D Cinema Film Festival, won an award making him the first Japanese director to receive one, and beginning with the Berlin International Film Festival he received many invitations to Film Festivals around the globe and this film was globally receiving 14 awards. He is continuing to create the image of "family"; from his own viewpoint and sensibility.
With Eigasai 2017 opening film Her Love Boils Bathwater, Nakano gladly shared some thoughts about the film and his style as writer and director:
There was an attempt to tell the story using colours. Red, light blue, and black. Can you explain why you emphasised on this? I also observed that the colour palette was warm all throughout the film or in some short scenes, there would always be small light amidst the darkness. How does this style help you in bringing out your message to the audience?
We talked about the mother and child relationship and I wanted the audience to have an image of those two, mother is red and daughter is light blue. In a way those colours are explaining about the characters. Personally, I really liked the colour red. For me it is being passionate and that is perfect for the character of the mother: passionate, loving. So in the last scene, I envisioned it to have a red smoke coming out of the furnace. I’m always aware and conscious of the colours I use in that movie. Moreover, Futaba is like a light that embraces each one of them.
There was a line said by Futaba that struck me the most, “I don’t want to die." She said this after showing in almost 3/4s of the film that she has already accepted her imminent death.
For me that part, Futaba never showed weakness to others. She never showed to the people around her her real emotions. She was always thinking of other people’s feelings. And so when she was seeing her family doing the pyramid, that was the first time that she sort of realised “I’m gonna die and won’t be with these people anymore.” That was the moment where for the first time, she spoke honestly and showed her real thoughts and emotions and not thinking anymore of other people’s judgments. That’s why she uttered those words. That was the moment where she was real. She was honest and was really herself.
In the beginning when the doctor told her of her condition, she cried but was hiding in the bathouse. But other than that she did not cry about her condition until that scene in the hospital. For me, I wanted to make sure that she shows her selflessness and then her weakness.
The line, “I don’t want to die” was written in the screenplay. But the other thing Miyazawa Rie (the one who portrayed Futaba) said, “I want to live. I want to live.” That part wasn’t in the script but Miyazawa was really in character and said it from within. She was being Futaba in that exact moment.