"Moving 4K Remaster Edition" Director of Photography/4K Supervision: Toyomichi Kurita 30 years after its release, creativity continues to this day [CINEMORE ACADEMY Vol.35]

More than 20 years after his death, director Somai Shinji continues to attract attention and garner acclaim. "Moving" (1993), said to have been made at the most mature stage of his career of 13 films, has now been restored in 4K and brought back to the big screen. The film's cinematographer, Kurita Toyomichi, oversaw the restoration. Kurita has worked with such masters of both Japan and the US as Robert Altman and Alan Rudolph in Hollywood, and Oshima Nagisa and Miike Takashi in Japan. How did Kurita bring "Moving" back to life in the modern era? What was it like working with director Somai at the time? We spoke to Kurita.

This interview was conducted at Coupe Inc.'s studio, where the 4K remastering took place, and the company's technical supervisor, Makoto Imazuka, was also in attendance.

Synopsis of "Moving"

Renko (Tabata Tomoko) is a bright and lively sixth grader living in Kyoto. After her father Kenichi (Nakai Kiichi) leaves home, Renko starts living with her mother Nazuna (Sakurada Junko). Nazuna makes rules for their new life, but Renko doesn't understand her feelings of wanting to change. She hides her divorce papers, holds herself at home, and even goes so far as to make her own arrangements for a short trip to Lake Biwa, where the family once visited...

*This article touches on the latter half of the story. Please be careful if you have not seen the movie.

Index

• From film to digital
• Thirty years on, creativity continues
• The concept is Utagawa Hiroshige
• Positive reviews from overseas

From film to digital

Q: How did the actual work begin?

Kurita: The 2K DCP conversion work was done here at Coupe. In other words, if the film scanning is done here, we can use the scanned data for grading work. That's why we decided to ask Coupe this time.

Q: So, did you use the data that was scanned and had scratches and other imperfections removed (restored) during the 2K digitization process again this time?

Imazuka: Last time, we down-converted the 5K scan data to 2K and restored it, so this time we had to do the restoration again in 4K. We decided to do the restoration again with Mr. Kurita's supervision, including reducing graininess, but since Mr. Kurita had returned to LA at the time, we had online meetings and other discussions to proceed with the work.

Kurita: Digital technology has advanced at an astonishing rate in recent years. When I listened to a lecture by Peter Doyle, a colorist whom I respect, he said that it's a good idea to make it compatible with Dolby Vision when digitizing. If you create a digital master that reflects your intentions of expression in the best possible condition at the moment based on the information from the original negative, you can then create formats for various purposes.

It's easy to see by comparing the graphs of light and dark gradation, but the curves of Dolby Vision and film almost overlap in the dark and midrange. This is not the case with a normal DCP. Compared to a normal digital master, Dolby Vision has more information on highlights, darks, and colors. The range of brightness and darkness expression changes. What I wanted was a rich expression of dark areas and color information. That's why I wanted Dolby Vision, but due to various circumstances, we ended up going with the "HDR10" standard.

"Moving 4K Remaster Edition" ©1993/2023 Yomiuri Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd.

Imazuka: HDR10 is one of the most widely used standards at present, with a color depth of 10 bits. On the other hand, Dolby Vision has a color depth of 12 bits, which allows for four times the precision of 10 bits, but requires some changes to the workflow. This time, we decided to go with HDR10, taking future use into consideration.

Q: There is a slight sense of grain in the film; how did you achieve that?

Kurita: That's an interesting point. In fact, the concept at the time of filming was to keep grain to a minimum. After various tests before filming, we decided to use two types of film, Kodak 5293 and 5296. 5293 had just been released at the time, and it produced very good skin tones with very little grain. On the other hand, this film has night scenes, so there is not enough light to use 5293. That's why we decided to use 5296, which has a higher sensitivity. We didn't push the film when developing, so grain is suppressed accordingly. If you push the film, grain will inevitably appear. We shot the film with a slightly over-exposed amount of light, so grain is also suppressed in that respect. In that way, we kept grain to a minimum from the choice of film to the exposure, lighting, and development process, so we tried to keep grain to a minimum even with this digitalization.

We are in a transitional period, and even though digital is in full swing, there are still people who have memories of film. I can understand why some people feel that grain makes it look more like film and are drawn to it.

*) Developing the film to a lighter brightness than the actual film sensitivity.

"Moving 4K Remaster Edition" ©1993/2023 Yomiuri Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd.

Q: Digital cameras have evolved a lot, but film has also evolved and I get the impression that it's getting more and more beautiful. I feel like there's less grain in film now, and it's almost impossible to tell the difference between digital and film anymore. If you look closely, in the case of digital, the only thing that bothers you is the roughness of the gradation in the highlights of indoor scenes.

Kurita: It's true that digital cameras have evolved tremendously. Their performance varies widely. For example, the sensor of the digital camera (Alexa) released by ARRI, which used to make film cameras, is a little different from other digital cameras. From the early days, ARRI has prioritized expanding the range of latitude (tones) rather than increasing resolution. The idea is that this makes the image closer to film. In fact, the gradation curve of the Alexa is close to that of film.

Previous cameras that produced images that looked digital have higher resolution and sensitivity, allowing you to take pictures in dark places, but the highlights are blown out. I think the difference comes from the difference in how digital cameras are thought about their functions. 4K is now the norm, and we're on the verge of moving to 8K, but I think the key is not just resolution, but latitude, especially how the highlights are brought out.

Thirty years on, creativity continues