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KAZOO's "SNS Eigojutsu" Movie Corner (28) 
 Reflections on My Interview With “Midsommar" Director Ari Aster
  - NHK E-Tele "SNS Eigojutsu" (aired 2020/02/07) | CINEMA & THEATRE #032
Photo: ©RendezVous
2022/10/17 #032

KAZOO's "SNS Eigojutsu" Movie Corner (28)
Reflections on My Interview With “Midsommar" Director Ari Aster
- NHK E-Tele "SNS Eigojutsu" (aired 2020/02/07)

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KAZOO
Translator / Interpreter / TV commentator

Overview


1.Ari Aster’s Filmmaking Process

To date, I’ve gotten to attend close to 40 press screenings ahead of the interviews I’ve done for Sekai e Hasshin! SNS Eigojutsu. The press screening for Midsommar was one of the most packed screenings I’ve ever been to, and a testament not just to how much Japanese movie industry people love horror films but how director Ari Aster has become one of the most exciting filmmakers working today.

Aster made his feature-length debut with Hereditary in 2018, and completely stunned the moviegoing public. And last year, Midsommar was released in the U.S. and abroad to rave reviews from critics and horror fans alike. The secret to Aster’s popularity is not just the genre-bending story beats and his filmmaking style, but also the fact that his films are so personal. Audiences are put through the ringer, but they’re also given a kind of catharsis at the end. Hereditary was based on experiences with his own family; Midsommar was inspired by a breakup.

Aster explained the genesis of the movie as follows: “I was going through a breakup at the time, and I had been looking for a framework that might open that up for me, and kind of allow me a way in. So the idea was to make an expressionistic breakup film that was sort of as big and operatic as a breakup feels. If your friend is going through a breakup, he might tend to look kind of pathetic, and ‘Why doesn’t he just get over it and move on?’ but when you are the one going through a breakup, it can feel catastrophic, or like a death is happening, because in a way, one is."

Aster has said that he conceived of Midsommar as a fairy tale to heal the wounds of his breakup. When I asked him if the production gave him the healing he was looking for, he answered, “For me, I think the writing is therapeutic and cathartic. And then, once you make the film, that is such a technical process, and such a stressful one, where you’re kind of racing against time, and desperately trying to make something out of nothing, or out of whatever resources you’re given—which are never enough."


2.Aster’s Undying Love For Horror Films

Ari Aster (1986-) is an American movie director and screenwriter from New York. He became hooked on horror films from a young age and rented every horror film he could from his local video rental shops. He earned a Master of Fine Arts with a focus in directing from the illustrious AFI Conservatory graduate program. After writing and directing several short films, he made his feature-length debut with 2018’s Hereditary, which was screened at Sundance and went on to be a critical and commercial success.

Hereditary
Ari Aster’s feature length debut is a nightmarish movie that punishes you for assuming you know how the story will unfold, or that you are “safe” in the director’s hands. Annie Graham, a miniatures artist living in Utah with her family, begins to attend group therapy after her estranged mother passes away. There, she reveals to the group that mental illness runs in her family: her mother had dissociative identity disorder, her brother committed suicide after battling with schizophrenia, and Annie sleepwalks. She attempts to leave the past behind her and move on, but when her two children begin exhibiting signs of mental illness, she begins a descent into her greatest nightmare. The central themes of Hereditary are dysfunctional families and the genetic inheritance of mental illness.

Midsommar
Aster’s second feature-length film is about toxic relationships and the arrogance of American male-dominated society. American college student Dani and her feckless boyfriend Christian are on the cusp of breaking up until Dani loses her parents and her younger sister in a horrible tragedy. Dani, in a state of shock, clings to Christian for support, but he has already checked out of the relationship; Christian himself is now in a position where he cannot bring himself to break up with her. Needing time away, he secretly plans a trip with his guy friends to the Swedish countryside to experience a local midsummer festival, but when Dani finds about the plan he reluctantly invites her along. The group travels to the village of Hårga, an Eden-like paradise touched by the midnight sun where the villagers all dress alike and lead an idyllic lifestyle. They are welcomed with smiles, given food and a place to sleep, but as the summer festival begins, they soon find themselves in a waking nightmare.


3.Japanese Influences

In the interview, Aster told me that there were more horror films from Japan that had impacted him than probably anywhere else. He brought up films like Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Cure (1997), Kobayashi Masaki’s Kwaidan (1965), and Shindo Kaneto’s Onibaba (1964). I got the sense that he had probably seen every Japanese horror film out there, both old and new. When I asked him what he liked about Japanese horror, he replied, “Because so many of them are so ethereal and the atmosphere is so dense.” Both of those elements are an important part of both Hereditary and Midsommar.

Prior to the interview, while I was doing research on Aster, I saw that he had retweeted a post about The Face of Another, which was directed by Teshigahara Hiroshi—one of my favorite directors.

When I asked him about Teshigahara and Abe Kobo, he said, “Woman in the Dunes is one of my favorite films, and it’s actually one of my favorite books. Teshigahara is one of my favorite filmmakers. I believe he was a florist, as well, and you can see that in his work. Woman in the Dunes is also very important for the way that he kind of merges allegory with realism, and it’s very surreal, but at the same time it’s incredibly grounded and textural.”

Aster also brought up the Japanese avant-garde composer Takemitsu Toru, who also scored Woman in the Dunes and The Face of Another. “I would maybe even go so far as to say he’s my favorite composer as far as film scores are concerned. I used him as a reference for the scores of both films that I’ve made so far.”


4.Does Japanese Content Stand a Chance on the Global Stage?

The 92nd Academy Awards were held just 10 days after my interview, and ever since, headlines have been all about Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, which won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film.

In Japan, the debate has turned to “Why can’t Japanese films win the Best Picture Award?” and “Why don’t Japanese films ever become worldwide hits?” The biggest reason is that the South Korean market is sufficiently small that content producers must sell their movie to global audiences in order to turn a profit; meanwhile, the Japanese market is sufficiently large that content producers are happy with a domestic hit. Since the 2000s, the Japanese government has led a “Cool Japan” initiative, but all it has done is make it easier for otaku-types overseas to get their hands on anime, manga, and J-pop.

Looking back at my interview with Ari Aster, one thing stood out to me. Although he had spent about half of the time talking about Japanese horror films and Japanese music, he never once used the word “cool”.

Japanese people seem to think that the word cool means the same as kakkoii (good-looking or stylish) or iketeru (hip). But for many native English speakers I know, cool is the word you use when you don’t have a particularly strong opinion about something but what to come across as encouraging. It’s something akin to “uh-huh.”

In other words, something you would refer to as cool is something that may be flashy on the surface but lacks substance. While it might be fashionable to a degree, it will never be the kind of art or culture that truly moves and inspires people. In recent years it seems the government has course-corrected their Cool Japan initiative, but if you ask me, the naming alone indicates to me that Japan has already lost.


5.My Wardrobe for This Interview

Charcoal gray necktie by Fattori

Charcoal gray necktie by Fattori
BigBrother lent me this vintage Fattori necktie.

Gray three-roll-two suit by Universal Language

Gray three-roll-two suit by Universal Language
For more about this item, see LANGUAGE & EDUCATION #005.

Pink buttoned-down shirt by Difference

Pink buttoned-down shirt by Difference
For more about this item, see FASHION & SHOPPING #008.

Gray socks by Brooks Brothers

Check out FASHION & SHOPPING #008 for more about this item.

Park Avenues by Allen Edmonds

Park Avenues by Allen Edmonds
For more about this item, see CINEMA & THEATRE #024.

“M-27" by 999.9

“M-27" by 999.9
For more about this item, see CINEMA & THEATRE #005.

CINEMA & THEATRE #032

Reflections on My Interview With “Midsommar” Director Ari Aster - "SNS Eigojutsu" (aired 2020/02/07)


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