What is director Yuka Eda's approach to guiding the two lead actors with their strong personalities? ``Shoujo Encounter'' [Director's Interview Vol.15]

After its release in June 2018 at Shinjuku Musashinokan and other theaters, the film ``Shoujo Encounter'' became a hot topic of conversation for its beautiful yet ephemeral worldview, and had a long run for nine weeks at Shinjuku Musashinokan. The DVD & Blu-ray will finally be released on January 16th. We spoke to director Yuka Eda, who shot this movie at the tender age of 24.

Index

• From just a movie lover to a filmmaker
• “It was different when I entered” the audition
• Completely different approaches to the two lead actors
• All the pictures I wanted to take were put into words.

From just a movie lover to a filmmaker

Q: This is your first time making a commercial film.

Ed: Although it is often thought of as a commercial film, it is an independently produced film.

Q: Although it is still an independent production, does that mean you were able to distribute it in theaters?

Branch: That's what it feels like.

Q: Please tell us how you decided to make this movie in the first place.

Ed: I wrote this script when I was 18 years old, but at the time I just loved movies, so I didn't know anything about how to shoot it. So I joined the film club at university. So when I showed the script to my seniors, they said, ``You should shoot this properly.'' That meant, ``If I shoot this script now, I don't think I'll be able to do anything I want.''

I thought that was certainly true, so I put the script aside for a while, and during that time I absorbed what I was missing. I started working as an assistant director on a commercial film set, doing making-of work, running the camera myself, and helping with distribution, all of which helped me develop the skills, knowledge, and connections necessary for film production. I also tried shooting short stories of 4 to 50 minutes using different scripts.

While I was doing this, I happened to be told that there was a call for proposals for a film called MOOSIC LAB. Moreover, when I looked into it, I found out that if I filmed it, it would be released in theaters! When I was helping with distribution, I was making phone calls to all local movie theaters to promote the movie, so I experienced firsthand how difficult it was to get a movie played at the theater. I did. So I was very surprised that it was played at the theater.

I immediately brought the script that I had been laying around, and the story progressed from there. A week later, I met Natsue Mizumoto, who was doing the music, and I was like, ``I'm going to make a movie!'' It was like things were decided first and The Day After all the preparations were made.

Q: The actual production of the film begins from there, and even though it is an independent production, there are professional actors involved. Was the budget secured?

The budget was made up of money I had saved over the past five years and crowdfunding. At that time, all that was decided was the script, which was about 80% complete, and what Natsue Mizumoto would do, so we held auditions at the same time and decided on the two lead actors (Moeka Hosushi and Serina Mottola). Once these two people were decided, the location was decided to cooperate, the staff gathered together, and things started to go smoothly little by little. By the way, all the filming was done in my hometown of Takasaki, and I was also allowed to use my alma mater as a high school.

“It was different when I entered” the audition