"Falling in Spring" Directed by Takahisa Zeze Match scene that creates drama [Director's Interview Vol.343]

No choreography in the final round

Q: The boxing scenes also take a lot of time to be drawn. How was the overall balance and structure of the film determined?

Zeze: The flow was written in the script, but that was just a hypothetical. Matsuura-san understood the scriptwriter's intentions and gave detailed developments. For example, the match against Otsuka was written in the script from the first round. However, it was impossible to show everything from the first round, so I started from where the match was interrupted due to the cut. It was my idea, but Matsuura-san agreed and made some adjustments.

Q: The main event against Nakanishi is depicted quite carefully. Was it written down what would happen in each round?

Seze: It was written in the script. Mr. Matsuura arranged it with a sense of reality. Ryusei and Kubota-kun also practiced many times and took on the challenge without dubbing. It's impossible to do it for the first time on set, so the two of us practice it over and over again. In short, it's the same as choreography. However, the ring sizes for practice and matches are completely different. The so-called boxing gym ring is actually small. When it comes to the size of the ring for a match, the movement inevitably changes, so we corrected that on-site. In the end, the shooting took four days.

“Spring Scatter” ©2023 Movie “Spring Scatter” Production Committee

Q: I was surprised to hear that you didn't do any choreography in the final round.

Zeze: That was Mr. Matsuura's idea, and in the end, we had them do a free performance, thinking that it would just be a discussion. It seemed like they knew what was going on between them after doing so much, so it wasn't too dangerous to watch. I think it was successful because it was not a so-called attack or defense scene, but a scene where two people who had reached a high level were simply fighting each other.

Q: How did you get the OK for the boxing scene?

Zeze: The criteria for judging is whether it's a valid boxing match and whether it looks like they're winning, but the two people in the match are serious, so there's no such thing as a no-no. He was so excited that his facial expressions didn't seem to matter. As long as they follow the flow of the game, that's fine.

What I am concerned about during filming is the sense of distance from the actors.