“On the Summer Film” Director: Takeshi Matsumoto x Screenplay: Naoyuki Miura The charming characters were born from Ogiri! [Director's Interview Vol.131]

Characters revealed in Ogiri

Q: The movie is packed with a lot of different things, but it never falls apart and works. I imagine it was difficult to bring the story together.

Miura: It was difficult. I created the ending first, and I assumed that I would eventually reach that point. However, I reworked the path I would take to get there many times.

Q: The film itself is quite tight at 97 minutes. Was it originally a little longer?

Matsumoto: That's right. The first draft was two and a half hours long. However, I like movies that are about 90 minutes long, and I thought the content of the movie would be good for that length, so I consulted with Miura at a fairly early stage and we decided on a length of around 90 minutes.

Q: The main characters devote their youth to making movies, but it must have been difficult to decide what to do with the content of the movies they made and whether to show the finished product. How did you decide on that?

Miura: They were shooting a period drama, but I thought from the beginning that even if the content itself was not conveyed, it would still be interesting. Anyway, this movie has a lot of elements, so I tried to cut out as many things as possible. For example, I made it a story about high school students only, and didn't include adults, and I didn't depict a family story.

Matsumoto: There are quite a lot of characters too.

Miura: We put a lot of thought into which elements to cut.

“On the Summer Film” © 2021 “On the Summer Film” Production Committee

Q: There were eight people in total making the film. If you include the two main characters from the rival team, the total number is ten. Even so, none of them had a weak presence, and the balance of everyone was exquisite.

Miura: This is Matsumoto's strength, but he has a great ability to create details. So even if it's a typical youth story plot, if you can bring originality to each and every detail, I'm sure it will become a great movie. Matsumoto is very good at things like how much character to give to minor supporting characters, so I tried to include as many of those elements as possible in the script.

Matsumoto: In the first meeting, we did something like a character comedy, and we were able to see almost all of the characters there. I think Miura came up with the idea of ​​two people in the recording department who could determine the pitcher by the sound of the ball being thrown, and I came up with the idea of ​​a delinquent from the lighting department.

Miura: We both had similar feelings about characters, like, "That guy is great, he's wonderful."

Q: I was surprised when I was watching the movie because I didn't think those kids would be involved in the filming staff (laughs). This is a very minor point, but there are two baseball team members who work as sound staff. Is there a reason why you chose two instead of one?

Matsumoto: Those two idiots (laughs).

Miura: It was so cute to see the two of them having fun discussing their own hobby.

Matsumoto: They really love baseball.

Miura: That's right (laughs).

Matsumoto: The two baseball team members and a delinquent who would never normally interact with each other become friends in the second half of the film. I wanted to show these different kids coming together in this film.