Masaru Sano was at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023 with the short, Women at the Zoo. Although the two films share some slight similarity in themes and set-up, nothing from that work prepared me for the phantasmagorical tale of mutating life that is his follow-up, Perfect Nervous.
The two women are Ayaka (Minori Fujidera), who is in hospital due to a condition called arteriosclerosis which means will lose her legs, and Yoshino (Akari Takaishi), who is in a neighbouring sanatorium because she has “congenital generalised arborisation syndrome,” a fictitious disease that will see her turn into a tree. The film zeroes in on a brief encounter that the two have and a resultant conversation that gets them to value still being able to live despite their deficiencies.
The story is based on a work by FUJINOYAMAI and features really, really impressive visuals that focus on light and shadow and filling sets with foliage. This visualisation helps underline themes and the progress that Ayaka and Yoshino make along their character arcs while also being just plain enjoyable to look at.
Masaru Sano kindly took part in an interview where he gave background on the production, from the origin of the story and how he came up with the visuals to why he has a tendency to work with actresses who have experience in the world of voicing anime characters.
My thanks go out to him and Aya for language checks.
In terms of the writing, it is credited to FUJINOYAMAI (ふぢのやまい). How did you work with FUJINOYAMAI to conceive the story on the page and where did the idea for the disease, both the arteriosclerosis and the “congenital generalised arborisation syndrome” come from?
It is based on a doujinshi manga. I asked Fujino-san, the author of the original story, to write the script for the film. The length of the original story (the number of pages) was a little short for a 30-minute story, so we had additional parts added for the film version. The story of “congenital generalised arborisation syndrome” is a fictitious disease, but it is based on the novel “Life’s First Night” written by Tamio Hojo, a writer who suffered from leprosy and died young.
ふぢのやまいとはどのようにストーリーを構想し、病気のアイデアはどこから生まれたのですか？
原作は同人誌の漫画です。映画を制作するにあたって原作者のふぢのさんに脚本をお願いしました。原作の尺(ページ数)だと、30分の物語にするのには、少し尺が足りなかったので、映像化にあたっては物語を一部加筆してもらっています。また「先天性樹木化症候群」については、架空の病気ですが、ハンセン病を患い夭折した作家、北条民推の「いのちの初夜」が元ネタになっています。
How long were you given for the shoot and what was the budget like?
The filming period was 4 days (5 if travel days are included). The overall budget was approximately 3.5 million yen.
撮影期間と予算は？
撮影期間は４日間(移動日を入れると５日)。全体予算は概算ですが350万円ほどになります。
There are many aspects to the visualisation that are really beautiful.
You have specific angles that show the shifting power dynamics between the characters and canted angles for the more surreal/darker elements. This looks like it was storyboarded and carried out exactly. Could you explain more about your approach to the framing?
For this film, I decided on the shots (angles) I wanted to capture before we started shooting. We meticulously took photographs during the location scouting and created storyboards based on the photos, with the intention of making all the shots as beautiful as possible.
フレーミングのアプローチについて、もう少し詳しく教えてください。
本作は事前に撮りたい画(アングル)を決めてから撮影をしていました。事前のロケハンで徹底して写真を撮影し、それを元に絵コンテを作成して、全カットがなるべく美しくとれるように意図していました。
The mise en scène captures a dreamlike atmosphere. The location hunting that went into this film really uncovered some treasures. Did you shoot at an actual working hospital and sanatorium? How did you discover the ruins?
The hospitals are all studios for location shooting. There are not that many hospital studios in the Kanto region, so finding one was easy. The ruins were actually a former Japanese military torpedo test site in Nagasaki Prefecture, Kyushu. There was not much information about this place on the Internet, so it was difficult to find it.
ロケ地はどうやって見つけたのですか？
病院は全てロケ用のスタジオです。関東周辺にはそんなに病院のスタジオがないので、探すのは簡単でした。遺跡は九州の長崎県にある、旧日本軍の魚雷試験発射場後で撮影しています。ここはインターネットでの情報が少なかったので、探すのに苦労しました。
The way that the sets were adorned with so much foliage helped create an ethereal atmosphere, especially with the dark and green tinge to scenes – where there might only be a slight ochre colour to offset it. The costumes of the characters also matched the lighting. How did you approach colour and set/costume design and set dressing?
I asked the lighting staff to devise lighting that would give the film the look of a horror production. As for the costumes, I left it up to the costume designer. I like the jacket Yoshino wore because it was very cool.
色彩やセット／コスチュームデザイン、セットドレッシングにはどのように取り組みましたか？
照明スタッフにはホラー作品のように見えるような照明作りをオーダーしていました。衣装については、衣装さんにほぼお任せしていました。吉野の着ていたジャケットがとても格好良くて気に入っています。
The way that you use light and shadow in scenes and how shafts of light pierce through tree canopies and corridors. How much was natural lighting and how much was artificial?
Most of the light in the room was created by lighting. However, there are some scenes that take advantage of natural light, so I would say that artificial light is about 8 and natural light is about 2.
照明についてはどのように考えましたか？
室内の光は基本ほぼ照明で作っています。が一部自然光活かしのシーンもあるので、感覚としては照明光が8、自然光が2くらいだと思います。
Performing in the light and dark are two strong actresses. Akari Takaishi is familiar from Baby Assassins while Minori Fujidera has anime voice acting roles in her filmography. Why did you select them and how did you work with them? What did they think of your story?
Since I had used actresses from Avex in our previous film Women at the Zoo (2022), I asked for actresses from the same agency again. It was difficult to audition from scratch, and we cast them since they are household names. Since I didn’t communicate much with the cast on set, I don’t really know how they felt about the work.
主演の2人が対照的な登場人物を見事に演じています。藤寺美徳と髙石あかりをキャスティングした経緯と、どのように彼女たちと仕事をしたのか、そして彼女たちがこの作品をどう思ったか教えてください。
前作「動物園のふたり」でもエイベックス所属の女優さんを起用していたので、その流れで同じ事務所所属の女優さんにお願いしています。一からオーディションをするのが大変だったのと、ネームバリューがあるのでそれを狙ってキャスティングしています。あまりキャストとは現場でコミュニケーションをとっていなかったので、彼女たちが作品に対してどう思っていたのかは分かりません。
I believe that you have worked with anime voice actresses in the past. Many are immensely talented. Is there any particular reason?
Japanese films rarely use voice actors, so I used them because I think that it will help differentiate my films from others.
声優と仕事をする特別な理由はありますか？
日本の映画では声優を殆ど起用しないので、他作品と差別化できると考えて起用しています。
The musical score by Ravel is a perfect fit. Can you explain more about the creation of the musical score?
Ravel is one of my personal favourite composers, and I have always wanted to use his music in one of my own works. The sources for two of the pieces, “Jeux d’eau” and “Pavane for a Dead Princess,” were performed by the musician for this film [Yoshiaki Miura].
ラヴェルの曲が作品に完璧にフィットしている。制作について詳しく教えてください。
ラヴェルは個人的にとても好きな作曲家だったので、昔から楽曲を自分の作品で使いたいと思っていました。「水の戯れ」と「亡き王女のためのパヴァーヌ」の２曲の音源は流用ではなく、本作の音楽家に新規で打ち込みをして作ってもらっています [三浦良明]。
There is a sort of ambiguity where a viewer can walk away thinking that Yoshino had turned into a tree but the ending suggests that she is a spirit connected to the tree which has seen many suicides. It added to the ethereal nature of the experience. Overall, what do you want viewers to take from the film?
I personally was not trying to convey a specific message. The main purpose of this film is to capture good images (a cool layout). I have a special way of making films by deciding on the scene or location I want to shoot and then work backwards to fit the story into the scene or picture.
観客にこの映画から何を感じ取ってもらいたいですか？
個人的には特定のメッセージを伝えようとは考えてはいませんでした。本作では良い画(格好良いレイアウト)を撮ることを一番の目的にしています。撮りたいシーンや場所を決めてから、物語を逆算してシーンや画にはめていく特殊な作り方をしています。
What are you working on next?
As for my next film, I have five or six projects on the go and the scripts have already been completed, so we hope to find film investors and distributors in the future.
次に取り組んでいることは？
次回作については、５〜６企画があり、脚本も既に完成しているので、今後は映画の出資元や配給先を見つけていければと思っています。
Perfect Nervous was screened as part of Osaka Asian Film Festival’s Housen Cultural Foundation-Supported Program. You can read my review here.