"Missing Child Videotape" Director Ryota Kondo x General Producer Takashi Shimizu: The Sense of Shooting a "Scary Atmosphere" [Director's Interview Vol. 466]

Influenced by "The Invisible Man" and "Loveless"

Q: It seemed to me that you placed more importance on a "hair-raising" feeling rather than a "jump scare" when it came to scaring people. What is the reason for that?

Kondo: As a horror fan, I am desperately looking for that kind of fear. I studied under Hiroshi Takahashi at the Film School of Tokyo, and participated in the filming of " Spiritual Bolshevik " (2018), which Takahashi directed. Takahashi had a clear idea of "where he wanted to shoot from." He was shooting from the belief that from which angle he would be moved. I think that's a pretty unique feeling, but watching from the side, it made sense. Until then, I had been shooting with vague criteria such as whether the necessary actions were captured and whether it was easy to understand, but I realized that this was not the case. Since then, when I was shooting, I first considered whether I felt that the screen I was looking at was scary. If I felt that it wasn't very scary, I would stop and think for a moment.

I think that the "hair-raising" feeling you just mentioned is the result of me exploring everything in my own way to find the best way to make that space feel scary, including the setting, the acting, the choice of location and the way I shot it.

"Missing Child Videotape" ©︎2024 "Missing Child Videotape" Production Committee

Q: It seems like you went through a lot of trial and error to scare people by showing them something that they don't see.

Kondo: That's right. When deciding on the camera position, I sometimes aim for a feeling that makes you wonder whose point of view it is. It may not be in the picture, but it could be the point of view of a ghost. I once watched director Leigh Whannell's " The Invisible Man " (20) and thought, "I see." Even if nothing is in the picture, you can insist that something is there (laughs).

Shimizu: There are two movies that clearly influenced this film.

Kondo: Yes. The two films I just mentioned, " The Invisible Man " and " Loveless " (2017, Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev), were my major references.

Q: Now that you mention it, it seems like there may be some similarities between " Loveless " and this film in terms of how parent-child relationships are portrayed.

Kondo: I take a lot of inspiration from him, from the way families are, to the way people are, to the way mountains are photographed, to the overall atmosphere of the screen.

The editing check went so smoothly I was worried