"BLUE FIGHT: The Breaking Down of Blue Youths" Director Takashi Miike reminded me of the feeling of V-Cinema [Director's Interview Vol. 471]

PAGES

2025.02.13Fumio Koda

Breaking Down is a martial arts event that has smashed conventional wisdom and has garnered enthusiastic support. The face of the event, fighter Mikuru Asakura, and entrepreneur Yuji Mizoguchi are taking on the film industry in a project called "Blue Fight: Breaking Down for the Blue Youths." Asakura, who was a big fan of the " Crows Zero " series, welcomed director Miike Takashi, who worked on the series. When casting the main characters, he held an audition of 2,000 newcomers. Kinoshita Danji and Yoshizawa Kaname, who were selected to co-star in the film, were chosen. How did director Miike Takashi approach this unprecedented project? We spoke to them.

Summary of "BLUE FIGHT ~The Breaking Down of the Blue Youth~"

Ryoma (Yoshizawa Kaname) and Ikuto (Kinoshita Danji) met in a juvenile detention center and became best friends. Inspired by a speech by Asakura Mikuru, the two aim to enter the ring of the martial arts event, Breaking Down. Watched by their families and friends, the two pursue their dream. However, a rival appears before them and they are drawn into an unexpected conflict. Will they be able to take a step towards a new life?

Index

It reminded me of the feeling of V-cinema.

Q: What was your impression when you received the offer?

Miike: Executive producer Yuji Mizoguchi approached me about this project, and I found it interesting that almost none of the people around him were professionals in the film industry. When I was making V-cinema in the past, people from a variety of professions were involved as well. Some works were made by film companies, while others were made by TV stations. Or maybe a business owner who had money left over from the bubble tried to make a movie, which was his dream in the past. That's how the environment where everyone was dreaming about movies supported my work in my 30s. This time, I felt like I was going back to my roots.

On this set, there was no "I want you to do this, I want you to do that" or anything like that, and there was a similar feeling of freedom to the past. Asakura-san and the others are people who have freely expressed themselves in the ring. Of course, I'm sure they had a long way to get to that point, but once they're in the ring, they're free and alone. There was a similar honesty. Once they started moving, they said, "I'll leave the rest to the director." It was a fun set.

Q: Asakura Mikuru was a big fan of the " Crows Zero " series (2007, 2009), so he really wanted to work with Miike.

Miike: That's how I've been helped by the past. There are people all over the world who have seen the cult films I made in the past, and I've been approached by people I've never met before. Some of them are big-name producers. It's all down to fate.

Q: This is your first time working with screenwriter Shin Kibayashi. How was it?

Miike: It's the "human heart" that moves the story. In the case of Kibayashi, that is what he excels at as a writer. This is also a story about parents and children, and there are elements that blow away the trend of lamenting circumstances, as represented by the term "parent gacha." No matter what environment you're born into, it's precisely because of that situation that you can live as you are. You encounter things on the way to get back up. In that sense, it's equal no matter what environment you're born into. And Kibayashi's script doesn't have a naive feel when it depicts these things, and all the characters that appear are flat and not stuffy. That was also interesting.

If everyone could act in a hot-blooded way, it would be possible, but I wondered how the young actors could act without being hot-blooded. The only solution is to gather people who are not hot-blooded (laughs). In that respect, I was glad to have met Kinoshita Danji and Yoshizawa-kun.

Why did they choose Kinoshita Danji and Yoshizawa Kaname?

PAGES