``Yatsu Tomb Village'' (1977 edition) What happened in the midst of the Yokomizo boom and Kadokawa films? [That's when movies were born Vol.3 middle part]

Production announcement for a fait accompli

In August 1976, after filming in Nagano, "The Inugami Family" was in the final stages, with filming mainly on sets at Toho Studios. On the 13th of that month, "The Village of Eight Graves" finally made it to its production announcement. At 2pm that day, the announcement was held at the Tokyu Hotel in Ginza, and those in attendance were director Nomura Yoshitaro, screenwriter Hashimoto Shinobu, Atsumi Kiyoshi who played Kindaichi Kosuke, and Hagiwara Kenichi, aka Shoken, who was cast as Terada Tatsuya. A large blown-up photograph of a limestone cave was displayed at the venue, and the speakers lined up in front of it.

First, Nomura said, "I really, really wanted to do this. I kept persisting and persevering and we'd made it this far, so I took on the role of producer as a sense of responsibility" (Sports Nippon, August 14, 1976), talking about his joy at finally starting filming and the reason he would be both director and producer, but there was a reason why Nomura spoke so passionately. At this point, there were many unresolved issues, including the budget, and there was a good chance that the movie would be canceled if things went wrong.

Since his days as an assistant director, Nomura has been valued for his ability to "read a budget." In other words, he could calculate how many days of shooting would take and how much the production would cost just by reading the script. "The margin of error was one or two days in production days and about 10% in the budget" (Weekly Gendai, August 3, 1978 issue), meaning he could read numbers more accurately than a producer. It was this ability that led to him working as a producer with Hashimoto on "Hakkoda Mountain."

However, his ability to read budgets was not only used to keep production costs low. Rather, Nomura believed that "the only way to make a movie interesting is to spend money and time on it. If you want to make 2 billion yen in box office revenue, you can spend about three years. For 'The Village of the Eight Graves,' you have to build a 30 million yen house on the border between Tottori and Okayama prefectures and set it on fire" (Weekly Gendai, cited above), and was of the opinion that budgets should be invested lavishly where they were needed. 'Mt. Hakkoda' was indeed made using this methodology, but for a film company that wanted to make a cheap hit, it was only natural that they would clash with Nomura over the budget.

In fact, for "The Village of the Eight Graves," the amount calculated by Shochiku's accounting and production department and the amount calculated by Nomura had a difference of 70 to 80 million yen, so it would not have been surprising if Shochiku, fearing the risk, had decided to cancel the production. This production announcement also seems to have been intended to force through the unresolved budget issue by making the start of filming a fait accompli.

The offer to Shoken was made by Hashimoto. At the time, he was at the peak of his career, appearing in a succession of masterpieces that would become his signature works, such as "The Fall of Youth" (1974) and "Light of Africa" (1975) in films with director Tatsumi Kamishiro, and "Angel with a Scar" and "Dear Mother" on television. It is no wonder that Hashimoto wanted Shoken for the lead role. However, Shoken, who has strong preferences and prefers high-quality works even if they are modest, was not the type to be happy to appear in the "entertainment film blockbuster" "The Village of the Eight Graves." In fact, he was unsure whether he should appear in it or not. It was Paul Newman who gave him the push. Of course, it was not Paul Newman who directly advised him to appear in "The Village of the Eight Graves." Shoken was surprised to see the great actor Newman appear in the disaster film blockbuster "The Towering Inferno" (1974) at the time, and it made him want to appear as well.

"In short, up until then I had been very rigid. My way of thinking and my approach. I wondered if I really needed to push myself so hard. That's how I came up with 'The Village of the Eight Graves.' I like Atsumi-san, and there was a time when I wanted to work with him." (Shoken)

However, despite agreeing to star in the film, Shoken began to get impatient as there was no prospect of filming starting, and the production announcement was also partly a way to deal with Shoken. August 1976, when the production announcement was made, marked a major turning point for Shoken. After the Tempters broke up, he left Watanabe Kikaku, an affiliate of Watanabe Productions, on the 2nd of that month, and "The Village of Eight Graves" became his memorable first film since going independent. At the press conference, Shoken commented as follows:

"It feels like a huge responsibility and I'm a little worried about how much I can accomplish." (Hochi Shimbun, August 14, 1976)

"This is my first lead role with Shochiku since 'The Promise', but I took a six-month break to prepare for this film. Up until now I've only appeared in seven films with short filming periods, but this time I want to work hard so as not to be a burden among the veterans, including Atsumi." (Movie Times, August 1976 issue)

Atsumi, who plays Kindaichi, said, "Until now, I've played roles that would intrude into peaceful situations and stir things up, but this time I'm like a presenter watching the incident from the sidelines. I wonder if I can really play such a well-behaved character..." (Sports Nippon, as cited above), making the assembled reporters laugh with his words that were reminiscent of his well-established character, Torajiro Kuruma, from "Otoko wa Tsurai yo."

When asked about Koji Ishizaka, who played Kindaichi in the earlier drama "The Inugami Family," he responded with "I may not be able to beat him in looks, but I can't beat him in a battle of wits" (Weekly Myojo, September 5, 1976 issue), demonstrating Tora-san-like witty dialogue throughout the show.

At this meeting, it was announced that the production budget would be 600 million yen, filming would continue until August of the following year, and the film would be released at the end of September 1977. However, in reality, filming of The Village of the Eight Graves was about to begin amidst a chaotic situation.

First filming of "The Village of Eight Graves"