"THU JAPAN 2023" Sadayuki Murai: People are driven by "code" [CINEMORE ACADEMY Vol.29]

" THU JAPAN 2023 (#THUJAPAN)" is a creative retreat* event held for the first time in Japan, held in Kaga City, Ishikawa Prefecture from Wednesday, September 20th to Saturday, September 23rd, 2023.

*: What is a retreat? A retreat is a way to spend a few days away from your familiar surroundings to heal your mind and body tired from work and relationships. Unlike a trip where the purpose is sightseeing, the purpose is to forget about everyday life and refresh yourself. A new style of travel and training camps that is popular in Europe and America.

At CINEMORE, we interviewed four of our many instructors who are well versed in film. This is the third in our series, and it features screenwriter Sadayuki Murai, of " Perfect Blue " (1998) and " Millennium Woman " (2001)! We hope you enjoy it.

Sadayuki Murai

Screenwriter. Professor in the Anime and Manga Department at Kaishi Sensho University. Winner of the 6th Fuji Television Young Scenario Award. Representative works include scripts for the movies ``PERFECT BLUE'' and ``Sennen Girl'' (directed by Satoshi Kon), ``Steam Boy'' and ``Mushishi'' (directed by Katsuhiro Otomo), and the TV anime ``Mourou no Hako'', ``Natsume Yujincho'', and ``Natsume Yujincho''. His works include series such as "Knights of Sidonia" and "Kaina of the Great Snow Sea," and he continues to engage in a wide range of creative activities, both in live-action and animation.

This interview was conducted after Murai actually participated in his workshop "Narrative Semiotics" and lecture "The Narrative Labyrinth: Why do we tell stories?" at "THU JAPAN 2023."

Workshop: Narrative Semiotics

A session focusing on the role of symbols in stories. Learning semiotics is a great help in understanding the world view and building the foundation for creativity. In this workshop, we will try to reexamine the meaning of stories from a semiotic perspective using paintings, anime, manga, etc. as subjects. Learning semiotics will greatly change the way you see the world.

Lecture: The Labyrinth of Stories Why do we tell stories?

There are other animals that can speak, but only humans create and communicate stories. Why do we humans create and share stories? One answer is that it is fun. However, it was also the moment when humanity got lost in the labyrinth of stories. It is speculated that we modern humans were clearly communicating stories to each other in ancient times, back to the time of cave paintings. The role played by the Lascaux cave and the murals on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi was probably the same as that of movies for us. It means the birth of fiction. Another answer is the birth of media that conveys fiction. What happened to the human brain at that time? Why was mythology necessary for the birth of civilization? And the secret of why so many stories are needed in modern times and the world continues to create stories through visual arts such as movies, manga, and animation will be deciphered from the latest cognitive science and anthropological perspectives.

Index

• Dealing with "symbols"
• People are driven by "code"
• I can't get out of the story
• The duality of the story

Dealing with "symbols"

Q: When did you start thinking about "semiotics" in the process of writing a screenplay?

Murai: Before I became a screenwriter. I won the Scenario Grand Prize for a work I wrote in 1993, and from then on I became a screenwriter, but I had been pursuing this theme on my own since the end of the 1980s, when I was a student.

Q: You learned it entirely by yourself, not through classes at school.

Murai: I was in the Faculty of Economics, so there were no classes on semiotics. I guess I was naturally compatible with Plato and Aristotle (laughs), and I've always liked thinking about things like "what is the essence of the world?" I thought about becoming a screenwriter when I was in junior high school, and I had a deep belief in myself that "stories are strange things." And I continued to think about why that was. I think that's why I became a screenwriter.

After I entered the workforce, I got a job at an advertising agency, then I worked as a freelance planner, and I think that even in advertising, the basis is "dealing with symbols." Thanks to my continued experience of "meaning being created by a combination of symbols," I have come to understand and create characters and the world of the work from that perspective when writing scripts.

Q: I understand that all of your works have an underlying theme of "Why are people able to communicate?" But are all of your films also structured around "dealing with symbols"?

Murai: People often say that my work is difficult to understand (laughs), but while they demand something easy to understand, the theme has always been "outsmarting." "Outsmarting" is outsmarting the audience, and at the same time, it is outsmarting what the staff wants. I try to "outsmart" everything, which is fun and makes the audience happy.

People are driven by "code"