"I fell in love like a bouquet" The presence of Yuji Sakamoto, a screenwriter who changed director Hiroyasu Doi's "preparedness to challenge movies" [Director's Interview Vol.103]

Screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto and director Hiroyasu Doi of the popular drama `` Quartet '' (2017) have teamed up again in the world of film, with Masaki Suda and Kasumi Arimura starring. ``I Loved You Like a Bouquet'' (released on January 29th) is a work that has been attracting attention from an early stage as a highlight of the Japanese movies of 2021.

University students Mugi (Masaki Suda) and Kinu (Kasumi Arimura) meet by chance at Meidaimae Station on the Keio Line in Tokyo. The two miss the last train, and while killing time at a bar, they discover that they share similar interests in books, movies, music, ways of thinking, and habits, and fall in love instantly. They soon started living together and had a happy life, but when Mugi got a job, their lifestyles and values ​​gradually began to drift apart.

This work, which is set from 2015 to 2020 and incorporates plenty of the culture of the time, is full of reality that many people would think is "personal." Excited by love, troubled, and sad... A number of famous lines that will make you startle, a sincere acting that is delicate yet has a sense of urgency, and a warm direction that makes you feel close. It is a new masterpiece of love stories, and will be engraved in the hearts of many people as ``our story'' that Dead Poets Society.

This time, we have an exclusive interview with director Hiroyasu Doi. Popular dramas such as `` It's Shameful to Run Away , but It's Useful'' (2016), ``Quartet'', and `` Nagi's Time '' (2019), as well as hit movies such as `` Biligal the Movie '' (15) and `` Voice of Sin '' (2020), have been released one after another. What is the reason why he said that he was ``released from his destiny'' with this work?

Index

• I tried not to include “uncle nostalgia”
• The movies that appear in the play were specified in the script.
• Proper nouns that highlight “conversations that only the two of us can understand”
• For the first time, I was freed from my “destiny” and was able to face the work in my own way.
• It became a kind of “problem film” that is rare in modern Japanese films.

I tried not to include “uncle nostalgia”

Q: ``A Love Like a Bouquet'' was a work that I couldn't watch without crying. Although some areas overlapped with my own life, there was a reality that made it hard to believe that it was someone else's problem.

Doi: I'm happy. thank you.

Q: It was also interesting to see the ``differences'' when I watched both of them side by side with ``Voice of Sin''. I was once again surprised by Director Doi's ability to change the production so much.

Doi: ``Voice of Sin'' is a story with a very complex structure, and there are many layers of time and place, so in a sense, we had to technically direct the audience in order to figure out how to lead them to the ``truth.'' It was a work that I had to think about.

On the other hand, the script for ``A Bouquet of Love'' was originally written in the form of a diary by Yuji Sakamoto, so I would say that I purposely omitted such technical aspects. I made it with the mindset of building up each one of them properly. Also, I tried not to project something like "old man's nostalgia".

(c)2021 “Love Like a Bouquet” Production Committee

Q: Is there a nuance that makes you feel nostalgic for the past based on your current feelings?

Doi: That's right. I'm in my 50s myself, but I think I can relate to the youth and romance movies made by older men (lol).

Instead, I wanted to create something with the mindset of simply continuing to look at people in a neutral manner. Masaki Suda and Kasumi Arimura, the top artists of today's era, and Sakamoto's words... I believed that if these two things were combined, a drama would be created, and it was great that the people who believed in it were able to create it.

Q: I feel like the part you just mentioned about ``taking a serious look at people's activities'' is reflected in the description of ``walking,'' for example. Key scenes include Mugi and Kinu walking together after missing the last train at Meidaimae Station, and even after they start living together, they take a 30-minute walk home along the river to get home together. It's prepared for you, isn't it?

Doi: After all, there are things that are born in the atmosphere of ``walking in an actual place.'' Walking from Meidaimae Station to Chofu via Koshu Kaido, you can't lie about the atmosphere you get from late at night until dawn. I think there is definitely a sense of reality that comes through from such scenes.

The movies that appear in the play were specified in the script.