"The Birds Sing at Night" Director Hideo Shirosada I have no choice but to do what I can [Director's Interview Vol.268]

Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, Miho Wu, Atsuhiro Yamashita, Sho Miyake, and Hisashi Saito are all unique directors who have worked on film adaptations of Yasushi Sato's original works. A new addition to this lineup is director Hideo Shirosada, who also made a film adaptation of Yasushi Sato's original work ``The Birds Sing at Night.'' Five films have been released this year alone, including this one, and this is Sato's work directed by Josada, who is currently known for making The Birds fly. It's an interesting combination for a movie fan, but how did the director himself deal with it? I spoke to him.

“The Birds Sing at Night” Synopsis

Shinichi (Yamada Yuki) made his debut as a novelist at a young age, but since then he hasn't been able to sing or fly, and his girlfriend with whom he lived together has left him, leading to a depressed life. His friend's ex-wife Yuko (Marika Matsumoto) moves in with him, bringing their young son Akira (Yuri Mori) with him. Shinichi lives an awkward "half-cohabitation" life in which he gives the house he used to live with his girlfriend to the two who have nowhere to go after getting divorced, while he sleeps and wakes up in a separate prefabricated house. Shinichi, who has been selfishly hurting others out of frustration with himself, writes out his miserable state night after night into a never-ending story. I start writing, stop, tear up the manuscript, and start writing again. It felt like an act of self-harm. On the other hand, when Akira falls asleep, Yuko goes out into the night town in search of a chance encounter. She, too, struggled to maintain a balance between the need to be strong as a parent and as a person, and the irresistible loneliness. Deeply hurt by his father's departure, Akira begins to admire Shinichi, who has become the only person he is close to other than his mother. Shinichi and Yuko keep their distance so as not to get too involved with each other, and the three of them spend seemingly peaceful days together. However, both of them were still unable to take a step forward. And one night...

Index

• Film adaptation of Yasushi Sato's work
• A play where it would be a shame to cut the cuts.
• Yuki Yamada who organized the children
• Is it interesting or not?

Film adaptation of Yasushi Sato's work

Q: Even though the film adaptations of Yasushi Sato's original work were directed by different directors, I feel they share a common atmosphere. I felt the same thing about this work, but was that something you were conscious of?

Josada: I guess it has to do with the atmosphere that Mr. Sato has. Not all of them have adapted the movie exactly as the original story, but there are some common threads. I had no intention of matching, but perhaps I was guided by Mr. Sato's power.

The directors who have made movies so far have all been strong writers, but I'm more of an entertainment-oriented director who can do anything. So I was a little excited to go into this. I thought about what it meant to be a writer, but in the end, no matter how much I thought about it, I had no choice but to do what I could.

Q: The script was written by Ryo Takada. Was the script ready when the director asked you to do it?

Josada: At the time I received the request, I was in the process of creating a script based on Yasushi Sato's original work. So, I was asked about who should be the screenwriter, and I was told that Takada was the only one who could be the screenwriter. I called Takada-kun on the spot and asked him. I've been working with Takada as an assistant director on Pink Movies for a long time, and he also has experience working on various scripts based on Sato's original works.

“The Birds sing at night” © 2022 Clockworks

Q: Did you make any requests to Mr. Takada when writing the script?

Josada: I wanted a movie-like highlight, not just an everyday scene where nothing happens. I asked him not to be too quiet. It's hard for me if there aren't any shocking scenes. There are parts of the story that were pulled from other short stories from the short story collection that contains the original story, and there are also parts that I added completely unrelated stories, such as episodes about baseball players.

Q: Certainly, the baseball player episode had a slightly different atmosphere from Sato's works.

Josada: Mr. Sato's film adaptations have a kind of ``sudden violence.'' I wanted something like that in `` Your The Birds Sings '' (2018) when a thug suddenly attacks you, or in `` Kaito City Scenery '' (10) there's a big fight in a bar. I don't have time for stories where the main character is just writing. I told him that I wanted to do sex scenes and violence properly.

A play where it would be a shame to cut the cuts.