Sho Miyake answers life’s greatest questions

The famous Japanese director Sho Miyake arrived in the United States. He brought with him two feature films: Small, slow but steady and Two seasons, two strangersa pair of landscape images that deal with the troubled human desire to connect with others. Isolation and anxiety are the cornerstones of Miyake’s burgeoning filmmaking. “I love these characters who have a sense of discomfort that slowly begins to distance them from society,” he says. Edge.
I saw it for the first time Small, slow but steady At New Directors/New Films (one of the best film festivals New York has to offer). It is the emotional story of a deaf boxer, Keiko (Yukino Kishi), who seeks to win her first match. Miyake delicately balances the tension of Keiko’s ambition with the listless discomfort she feels at her success, which is exacerbated when her longtime coach’s health declines and her routine is upended.

Sho Miyake’s latest feature, Two seasons, two strangershas its own friction to solve. The film begins and ends with screenwriter Lee (Shim Eun-kyung) writing at a desk. But in the middle is Miyake’s weaving in separate stories of human connection and isolation based on the story of famous cartoonist Yoshiharu Tsuji. View of the sea beach and Mr. Ben and his igloo — A movie within a movie, or a manga within a manga. Its structural innovations are praised by Miyake. He recently received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Film Festival.

Edge He sat with Shu Miyake at the front Two seasons, two strangers American theatrical debut. (Small, slow but steady Available on demand now.) Speaking through a translator, Miyake answered big existential questions — like why we as humans tell stories — and what he thinks about artificial intelligence.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

I did A recent interview in Nowness Asia As you said you really like clumsy but honest characters. What about it do you like?

To be honest, I think of myself, almost to my dismay, that I’m so clever that I can find ways to be untrue with myself or lie to myself. So I think it’s ambitious for my characters to be goofy, but at least very honest. It’s something I aspire to.

Small, slow but steady It was the first movie of yours I saw. When you look back, are there any lessons you’ve learned?

I think there are many things I learned from making it Small, slow but steadyBut I will give one example and I think it is reflected in the title alone. I feel like this is the way I approach filmmaking. I think so Small, slow but steady It reflects not only my approach to filmmaking, but also how I see the world as changing. When I was younger, I thought things didn’t change overnight, but now I see that these small, invisible efforts and the culmination of them can lead to bigger changes in society. But also when I think about filmmaking, every cut and every scene is so important that I need to handle it very carefully, so maybe that one scene isn’t enough to impress anyone. But the climax is what creates a good movie.

There is a moment in Small, slow but steady It just shows the dust in the boxing gym. It felt like a comfortable decision.

That’s actually one of my favorite shots in the movie and it felt a little overwhelming because I had all these stars and actors on set, but we were getting up early in the morning to film the dust clinging to the air. So I think that shot is an example of how I want to show these things that are normally invisible and make sure we don’t overlook them. And I feel like the crew and I were really blown away by how poignant and important that shot was, just to be able to capture the dust that lights up for a second in the morning.

your latest movies, Two seasons, two strangersbegins with the protagonist writing a text. It is a very quiet and wonderful place. What is your ideal writing environment?

First and foremost, I want to be able to walk around my neighborhood and find a really fun street to walk on, because of course when I write, I want to be in an office in peace. But when I’m walking I usually get my best ideas.

These characters struggle with many existential human questions. Why was this essential for you to explore?

This is a very deep question and a difficult one to answer, but I think even when I was very young and even as a child, I thought a lot about why we are alive. And I don’t mean to say that in a depressing sense. I was just genuinely curious about this question.

But as you get older, I find that the question gets heavier and heavier. And when I think about it too much, it might lead me to feel a little frustrated. But if you try to change the form of this question: Why do we make movies? Why do we make pictures? Why do we draw pictures? Just changing the wording of this question makes me feel very positive about it. I think this new movie is about: Why do we write stories? Why do we go and travel?

I think in these ways he thinks about human existence, but kind of from this indirect place. And of course in Small, slow but steadyWhy does Kiko want to continue boxing? So I think around these questions, the basic thing is, Why are we alive and why do we do what we do?

Two seasons, two strangers It is a structurally ambitious film, as we follow the personal story of the screenwriter and the film she wrote. I saw a little bit of Hong Sangsoo and Ryusuke Hamaguchi in him. Did these directors inspire you?

Of course, the two directors I mentioned are very important to me, but I think the foundation and biggest inspiration for this film had Buster Keaton. sherlock jr. In the film, Buster Keaton plays the role of a projectionist trying to get into the world of movies. I believe that this film explores the idea of ​​what cinema is and what cinema’s relationship to life is. It’s also the first moment we see a movie within a movie. So I think that was my biggest inspiration.

Your movies tend to rely on characters experiencing something that’s low-stakes but feels very high-stakes. Will this theme continue into your next project?

That’s an interesting thing I pointed out about my characters. In fact, the film I’m currently editing features a protagonist who, instead of acting for himself, acts for others. It really changed the structure of the film, and I think that’s a new approach for me. Whether my characters act out of concern for themselves or for the sake of others, all of my films are about how a character interacts with the society around them and tries to improve it. So I think I’ve gone from characters who are focused on their own happiness to maybe with this new movie, a character who’s mostly focused on the happiness of others.

This is a strange question, but your last two films were before Two seasons, two strangers It was shot on film. but Two seasons, two strangers It’s on digital, yeah?

Why did you choose to shoot this film digitally?

There are two reasons, the first is very technical as the film will be shot in the ocean and then in sub-zero temperatures, and I think it was a big risk to shoot the film.

The second one is kind of at the heart of this decision, but it relates to this question like, Why turn the manga into a movie? And I think the answer to that was digital photography because obviously manga, illustrations and comics are still images. But if you shoot these scenes on film, there will always be those subtle movements of the grain. A shot will always be moving, but with digital, as long as nothing is moving within the scene, it really just looks like a photograph. This also allows the smallest movements to be very surprising and shocking to the viewer. It’s as if the manga has come back to life.

How do you think about technology now? Does the noise around AI affect your business at all? Is it inspiring? Is it kind of detracting from it?

I don’t think about it at all.