Actor Kaji Yakusho & Writer/Director Wim Wenders talk to The Inside Reel about using music and space to create ambience and performance in regards to their film: "Perfect Days" from NEON.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 [MUSIC]
00:18 [FOREIGN]
00:24 [MUSIC]
00:30 >> And my last question, I'll push this to you, but also if Koji wants to add
00:35 anything afterwards, is the aspect of using the music and the space.
00:40 Because obviously the music and the space work so well together, but
00:43 this man is an environment of his space and
00:46 the space is a reflection of him wherever he is.
00:50 Can you talk about that, but then using the music and
00:53 that sort of progression of the journey to sort of represent where he is
00:58 from the beginning to that beautiful final shot, which says so much about him?
01:03 >> Well, space is really an incredible element in this movie.
01:11 First of all, there's a space of his rules.
01:13 And I remember that we chose a house way in the beginning and
01:20 we loved the house, but it was a simple house, nobody lived in it.
01:24 We had to put furniture in, it had tatamis, that was all.
01:29 And of course, the art department has always put too much in.
01:32 So the day before we started shooting, I said, come on, Koji,
01:38 we're just gonna stay for a few hours in the house.
01:41 And you feel it and you start living there and you do your routine.
01:47 And then you tell me what you do not need in this house.
01:50 And we went through this process and Koji said, let's take out this table.
01:55 Let's take out these chairs.
01:57 I don't need that thing.
01:58 I don't need this light.
02:00 I have a light up there.
02:01 In the end, the apartment was empty.
02:04 It had futon and the shelves with the books and the cassettes and
02:08 a little table for these plants.
02:10 And that was all.
02:11 And I was so happy because I had hoped we could get there, but
02:15 I didn't know that I wanted him to make it his place.
02:19 [MUSIC]
02:29 [MUSIC]
02:39 So it became an empty space and it was filled with so
02:52 much more than it could have been if we had left it the way it was in the beginning.
02:59 It was an interior space more.
03:01 And in the end, the space of this film is defined by his eyes and by what he sees.
03:06 And Koji's eyes are incredible and he has the most, the kindest look at things and
03:14 his eyes are very, very kind and friendly.
03:18 So, and the audience in the way slowly takes in the space that he introduces them to.
03:26 And they start seeing the film through his eyes and seeing something through
03:32 such kind eyes has a deep effect on you as an audience.
03:37 And that became the film.
03:38 And that's why I also after a while didn't wanna rehearse and then shoot, but
03:44 I felt his eyes were guiding us and I could shoot the rehearsals and
03:50 get into this very new territory of making a documentary of a man we had invented.
03:56 [MUSIC]
04:06 And Koji, that was, did you fall into this man very quickly?
04:24 I'll let you go, but what, how long did it take for
04:28 you to become this man, to feel him and be who he was?
04:32 [FOREIGN]
04:42 >> [FOREIGN]
04:52 >> [FOREIGN]
05:02 >> [FOREIGN]
05:12 >> [FOREIGN]
05:22 >> [FOREIGN]
05:32 >> [FOREIGN]
05:42 >> [FOREIGN]
06:07 [MUSIC]
06:17 [MUSIC]
06:27 [MUSIC]
06:37 [MUSIC]
06:47 [WHOOSH]