An alcoholic ex-writer (Shogen) and his ex-wife (Megumi) are reunited when given notice that the person who murdered their 17-year-old daughter Emi (Miki Maya) will get a retrial. As they come face to face with their daughter’s killer (Ryo Matsuura), the knotted threads of anger, grief, guilt, and resentment are pulled apart both in the court room and at home as the three people are rocked by feelings of forgiveness and hatred.
Part courtroom drama, part character study, this is the third feature from Anshul Chauhan, a director who I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing twice, first for Bad Poetry Tokyo (2017) and second for Kontora (2020). His latest work features fine performances from the entire cast, especially from leading man Shogen whose journey provides gripping emotional currents to pull the viewer along. For me, it was an unexpected film since this is partly a legal drama and it looked more mainstream than what I thought might be Anshul’s next work. I was not disappointed.
While I reviewed the film back during its Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023 screening, I took the opportunity to interview Anshul Chauhan during its run at the New York Asian Film Festival 2023. I’d like to thank the staff at the festival and Anshul Chauhan for making this interview happen!
December is a great film, a really absorbing experience that is part courtroom drama, part character study. I felt like the two elements balanced each other out well and it was perfectly paced. It was also totally unexpected. I remembered a few ideas for films you were developing that you talked about in our last interview, like one involving people disappearing from society so to see something more sober and controlled.
Where did the story for December come from?
My writer friend, Rand Colter, wrote the first draft of the script, which was quite open and could be set anywhere in the world. To adapt it for Japan, we had to rework the script and do some research to find real stories from Japan that were similar. It didn’t take much time, as we found many such stories. Visiting courts and talking with lawyers also helped us get the language and details right for the Japanese setting.
Did you have an interest in courtroom dramas before making this film?
No, I never thought I could make a court film myself. I enjoy watching them, but I felt many court films are alike, with lawyers acting like detectives and getting close to the main suspect. In DECEMBER, I was drawn to the retrial drama aspect. We revealed the murderer to the audience in the start of the film, and the rest of the story focused on the pure human drama, which I found interesting and wanted to explore.
What sort of research did you do for the court procedures and for the philosophical arguments of trying a teen for murder? Did you pull anything from real-life cases?
I visited Tokyo High Court multiple times to observe the hearings, how people behaved, and where they sat. I also read many documents about the Japanese Judicial system, especially about juvenile crime and offenders. Additionally, I watched documentaries about the Japanese prison system and teenage killers in Japan. I read crime news and collected many stories. Interestingly, just before we started shooting, a similar case occurred in Aomori prefecture, where a high school student stabbed his classmate, which was shocking. Usually, long prison terms are not given to juveniles in Japan, but there were two cases where it happened, and we took inspiration from those cases.
Was there more to the legal arguments in the courtroom scenes or maybe from the flashback bullying scenes that you ended up cutting from the film?
Not really, we included everything we shot in the film. However, I did remove some parts of the bullying scenes because they were too brutal and realistic. I was concerned that including them might make some people uncomfortable and question the type of bullying portrayed in the film.
You achieve varied and absorbing rhythms to courtroom exchanges with really controlled editing and camerawork – one scene that stood out was Megumi on the stand hearing about the girl’s background and the subtle slow, slow zoom in on her face. In other scenes you have rapid-fire shots as arguments heat up. There’s this fantastic fluidity among images that gives the film great dynamism. Could you talk about the set-ups for those courtroom scenes, like how many cameras did you have?
Just one camera. I don’t think I can afford two camera setups yet. But all thanks to my great camera team, there were only three people in the camera team doing multiple things. Court scenes were shot with the long lens so we can zoom in the same ongoing scene and make it look like a new shot. It was carefully planned. We shot really fast in court scenes as we had to shoot two sessions per day which were quite intense. For Megumi’s shot the idea came from DP Peter Moen Jensen and I really loved it as it was just perfect for the situation, as Sato was trying to trap her in his arguments and trying to put pressure on her to change her mind, that slow zoom really worked well. One of my fav shots in the film. For actors it was challenging as it was just one shot, it was done in 3 takes and we used the third one. Rest of the court scenes I figured out the pace while editing the film. It was styled around actors body language and eye directions mainly.
In terms of the cast, you have fantastic performers who really sell their roles. Each principal character’s story arc felt real and the performers imbued their roles with a believable layer of life. With that in mind…
How did you meet Shogen and Megumi and Ryo Matsuura and why did you cast them?
I know that you do intense preparation with your actors, so how did you prepare them for their roles?
When you have an extremely low budget the only way to make a film great is to pull out some real and authentic performances from the actors. I have known Shogen for a long time, met him after the first film, Bad Poetry Tokyo. He showed interest in working together. So I kept that in mind, when I finally had the script which I felt was fit for him I approached him, he accepted the role and I gave him the lookbook which I created in photoshop. He was ripped at that time from doing Gensan Punch so he had to put on some weight and grow a beard. I gave him his costume much before the shoot and a whiskey flask to carry around.
Ryo I met while screening Kontora, she came to watch the film and I was just mesmerized by her looks specially eyes. She kept coming in my head while rewriting the script. So I asked her for the audition and did three auditions before saying yes to her. She is a model so I was a bit skeptical about casting her but she nailed it.
I auditioned Megumi and more than that I liked the default expression of her face, she is a mother in real life which I felt was important for me to cast.
We didn’t have any formal preparation for the film, no rehearsals at all. We only had one day of script reading with all the actors. Instead, I spent a lot of time talking with them in detail about the characters. I took Shogen, Megumi, and Kanon (Emi) to Yoyogi Park one day to let them hang out, but that was the extent of our preparation. Shogen met them a few times in cafes, celebrated Emi’s fake birthdays, and simply spent time drinking in bars.
The emotional commitment in your films is often great. How did the cast fare during the shooting of their scenes in court? Were there multiple takes?
I give actors the freedom to explore their characters in their own way, without too much control from me. However, I always keep the final edit of the film in mind while shooting, which helps guide the process. I encourage them to push themselves to their limits while staying true to their characters. My goal is for them to feel like they’ve given their all by the end of the film.
During shooting, we usually did multiple takes, but not more than 3 or 4. In each take, we would do the whole scene, which later helped me choose the most interesting takes during editing. Editing is the most crucial part of my filmmaking process. I re-create the whole story through editing to bring out the emotions you see in the film. It’s a lot of manipulation, if you see the film carefully you will realize I have used first court session footage in third or fourth session and vice versa. Mainly the reactions of the actors looking here and there. Most of the multiple takes were for the much simpler scenes like Kana looking back in her last scene which went up to 12 takes or some simple reactions from the judge or lawyers.
In terms of Shogen and Megumi, how did you allow them to shape their characters and what were the most memorable moments of spontaneous actions during a take that you kept in the film?
Filming a movie doesn’t happen in the exact order as written in the script. Sometimes we shoot the last scene first, depending on location availability. This makes it challenging to track the characters’ emotional journey, which is one of the hardest parts of directing. Actors might film scenes from different parts of the script on the same day, so we have to talk with them and help them get into the right emotions for each scene. Probably the hardest part of directing is to maintain the character’s arc throughout the filming process, and constant communication with the actors is crucial.
Building a trusting relationship with the actors is essential for a successful film. They need to believe in the director’s vision and what is expected from them. It’s about working together with actors to understand each other’s perspectives every day.
Apart from the court scenes, almost everything else was improvised on the spot. The bullying scenes, for instance, were completely spontaneous; we didn’t have a specific plan written in the script for how they would unfold. Even the final shot of the film, where Sumiko walks behind Katsu, was decided while shooting, as we discovered the location during the filming. I changed my mind about how to shoot the scene, and it turned out differently from what was originally planned. For example, Kana looking back to Katsu and Katsu looking through the small window in the door were not initially scripted that way. We made those decisions on the spot based on the locations we were filming at. The sets were not manipulated or specifically created for those shots; we worked with what was available to create what you see now.
You are always cooking up new ideas for films, can you say a little about what projects are you working on next?
I have a few projects in progress. After KONTORA screened in New York, one of the biggest Hollywood agencies CAA approached me to represent me, and together, we’ve been working on my first Hollywood film. We pitched the project to various Hollywood studios, and finally Radical Media picked it up. Currently, it’s in the early development stage, and once the actors’ strike in Hollywood is over, we’ll move forward with casting. I’m really excited about this sports drama set in Las Vegas, which will feature real UFC fighters.
In addition to that, I’m writing a new film that takes place in Ishigaki and Iriomote islands of Okinawa. It’s a romantic drama with military and political background in it. I’m also collaborating with a writer friend on an Indian horror project, and we plan to start pitching it once the script is ready. My goal now is to work on films in English or my mother tongue, Hindi.
Once again, my thanks for this interview go out to the staff at NYAFF 2023 and Anshul Chauhan.
December was screened on Monday, July 24th, 18:00 at the Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center with an intro and Q&A with director Anshul Chauhan and actor Shogen.