"Postman of Nagasaki" directed by Mika Kawase Documentary looking at the future through communication with the dead [Director's Interview Vol.226]

An editor accompanies the shooting

Q: Yuji Ooishi, who was in charge of editing, is credited as "composition and editing." How did you and Ooishi actually proceed with the editing process?

Kawase: Actually, Oshige-san accompanied Isabelle on all of her location shoots in Nagasaki.

Q: Is that so?

Kawase: He also served as the recorder, and we experienced what actually happened on set together. That's why we were able to confirm on set that "the footage we just shot can be placed here in the movie." Perhaps because of this, there were no discussions during the editing process about whether or not to include a scene in the movie. We knew that the scenes that moved us on set were OK, so we treasured those scenes and thought together about where to place them in the movie and in what order to show them most effectively.

Q: I think it's unusual to have an editor accompany you on the filming of a documentary. Was that your style in your previous works?

Kawase: No, that's not the case. This time, I told Oshige, "I'm going to shoot without an assistant," and he said, "Okay, let's do it together," and he came along with me. It was luxurious, wasn't it (laughs).

“Postman of Nagasaki” © Satomi Sakamoto

Q: The filming took place in 2018, but how long did the editing process take The Day After on?

Kawase: I did it quite a bit. I wonder how many years I did it... But I feel like I lose a lot if I do it too much, so I don't work with materials all the time.

Q: After editing, did you review the film after a certain period of time?

Kawase: Yes. I leave some time between editing sessions. That way I can calm down. When I'm editing, I get so heated up that I can't even understand what's going on. So I stop working for a while until I cool down.

Q: So it took about three years for the film to be left to sit and then edited again and again.

Kawase: We wanted to create a film that would last a long time. This led us to choose expressions that were not eccentric. We had a sense that the length of the scenes would naturally be decided, and while we were letting it sit, we thought, "This direction is not right after all." We came to understand that, "Ah, this is the direction we want to go in."

Q: I've made television shows, so I have a clear deadline: the broadcast date. With an independent film, it seems like it's hard to know when a film is considered "finished."

Kawase: But you start to see it. There comes a time when you think, "This is the best I can do." We couldn't complete it for many years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I was actually grateful for that.

I just want a bicycle and a boy standing