"Lights on the Port" Director Mojiri Adachi and Miu Tomita: What was important to them was depicting "time" [Director's Interview Vol. 465]

Thirty years have passed since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Based on extensive interviews, this original story realistically depicts the post-disaster generation. While it deals with themes such as the earthquake, Koreans living in Japan, and emotional scars, it depicts a universal family story that is common to everyone. Although the film avoids dramatic developments, the camera's closeness to the characters will capture your heart before you know it. The director is Adachi Mojiri, who has worked on numerous dramas as a director for over 20 years. This is the first time that Tomita Miu has starred in a film.

The careful direction and outstanding quiet acting will stay in your mind. That is undoubtedly the proof of a masterpiece. How did the two of them create the movie "Lights in the Harbor"? We spoke to them.

Synopsis of "Lights on the Port"

In the 1995 earthquake, many houses were burned down, leaving the city of Nagata in Kobe as a burnt wasteland. Akari (Tomita Miu) was born to a Korean family who used to live there. Akari has little awareness of being a Korean resident of Japan, and has no memory of the disaster. The stories of the family history and the time of the disaster that her father (Komoto Masahiro) and mother (Aso Yumi) tell her feel distant, and she feels lonely and frustrated. Meanwhile, her father is constantly clashing with the family, and there is always a cold atmosphere in the house. One day, an argument at a family gathering causes Akari to become angry and blurt out, "Everything is so hard." Then, the family becomes even more unstable when her older sister Miyu (Ito Marika) brings up the idea of naturalizing as a Japanese citizen. Why was I born to this family? My family and me, my nationality and me. What do I really want to do?

Index

• Expressing a time span of 30 years
• The cast and crew had the same feeling
• What can be seen from the facial expressions when listening to lines
• This work depicts "time"

Expressing a time span of 30 years

Q: The story incorporates many elements, such as the earthquake, Koreans living in Japan, and emotional scars. How was the script written?

Adachi: Producer Hiroshi Yasunari gave me an order to make a film set in Kobe with the theme of mental care, to be released on the 30th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and from there I started thinking about what kind of story to tell. I wanted to cherish the expression of the 30 years, so I thought I would make people who experienced the earthquake and those who did not one of the themes. So I decided to make a story about a family with a person who did not experience the earthquake as the main character.

When I was making the story, I first went to Nagata, the area that was hit the hardest, and talked to people there. Nagata is a town where people with various roots live, and there are many Koreans living in Japan. When I talked to them, I learned that the first, second, and third generation have completely different ways of perceiving things, and that this causes suffering. When depicting the 30 years of people living in Kobe, I thought that I could express many things by focusing on a family with such roots. And I hope that by depicting it from the perspective of the main character, Akari, and by expressing the world within a radius of a few meters of her, it will be possible to feel many things. So, the topic of Koreans living in Japan was not decided on as a theme from the beginning.

"Lights come on at the harbor" ©Minato Studio 2025

Q: What was your impression when you first read the script?

Tomita: When I received the offer, the script hadn't been written yet, and the outline was written in a proposal. The words "earthquake disaster," "Korean residents in Japan," and "bipolar disorder" caught my eye, so I felt that I had to catch up with the resolve of the staff who had decided to depict something like this. In previous works, I would basically accept anything that came my way if my schedule was free, but this time I thought I needed time to develop the same resolve as everyone else, so I took about three weeks to respond. During that time, the first draft of the script was submitted, and I read it carefully, and once I was properly resolved, I accepted the role.

I felt that Akari was an ordinary girl, and I felt like I wanted to meet the people she would meet in the future, as well as the uncertainty she faces. That was one of the reasons why I asked her to play the role.

The cast and crew had the same feeling