"The Wonderful World" Director Miwa Nishikawa I felt Ryuzo Saki's gaze throughout "Identification Book" [Director's Interview Vol.105]

Attention to sound, from train sounds to dialects

Q: Speaking of cinematography, editing, and art, the next thing to talk about is sound. I was really curious about the sound of a train echoing in the scene at the soapland in Kitakyushu (Kokura). Did that reproduce the sound that resonates in the actual store?

Nishikawa: It was difficult to film in the actual location, so that scene was shot in a studio. However, when I walked around the streets of Kokura during Sinahan (scenario hunting), I realized that the shops were located near the railroad tracks, so I asked the effects department to include the sound of the train. I did.

Q: Actually, I'm from Kitakyushu, and I remember when I was a kid riding the train, I would see a lot of shops like that along the tracks. However, in the movie, there are no shots of the store entering or the exterior, and even if there were no train sounds, I thought no one would be able to tell. I was surprised by the high level of reproducibility, or rather by the attention to detail in the sound.

Nishikawa: People watching are watching. It's scary (lol).

Q: I get excited when my hometown shows up, and I can't help but notice it. Everything was local, from the area code to the Star Flyer and Nishitetsu buses. I don't think there was anything like, "Oh, this is different!"

Nishikawa: People are watching me (lol). After all, those who understand understand. I don't have any knowledge of the area, so it's just a lot of gibberish.

Q: The dialects of all the actors were also good. Even though Midoriko Kimura is from Hyogo, I thought she spoke the Kitakyushu dialect very well.

Nishikawa: I was having a hard time saying, ``I'm from the Kansai region.''

Q: Kitakyushu City is in Fukuoka Prefecture, but I think the nuances of the dialect are closer to Oita and Yamaguchi than to Hakata. I was impressed with how good it was in that aspect.

Nishikawa: It's difficult for me to make the detailed distinctions. I had a hard time. People from Kitakyushu and Hakata speak well. I feel like the dialogue is well-defined, especially when it comes to words used by women. When I saw it myself, I thought Midoriko was a perfect fit.

Q: Koji Yakusho is from Nagasaki, right? It's totally good now.

Nishikawa: That's why I was having a hard time. Since it's in Kyushu, you'll notice that it's closer to Nagasaki. The staff member who did the special makeup for this time, Kiya Sori, was from Hakata, so the government office pointed out things like, ``That's wrong. The current one is more Nagasaki-ish.'' ``That's the Nagasaki dialect.'' People were asking, ``What are you talking about, this Hakata Monkey!'' It always took about three hours to do the tattoo make-up, so the two of us would often practice together there.

Q: The words that Mr. Yakusho says in the fight scene were used around me when I was in junior high school (lol).

Nishikawa: Ah, as expected from Kitakyushu (lol).

"The king is naked!"