“Write what you” know is a phrase I use a lot (maybe too much) for any film that shows a degree of self-reflexiveness with regards to filmmaking. Such was the case for my review of Inch Forward, a drama by Su Yu-chun about a young indie director named Kiriko (Nairu Yamamoto) who is trying to get her road movie on the proverbial and physical road while suffering crises in creativity and labouring under setbacks in terms of casting and vehicles getting stuck in the landscape.
Alternately demonstrating a sweetness and clear-eyed self-awareness with her work, director Su Yu-chun’s Inch Forward shows the labour that goes into a creative project but crucially for me, it also shows the bonds between people. For while Kiriko and her journey provide the tentpole of the film, a constellation of characters surround her and light up her path with their support, ideas, and influence.
This expansiveness also includes the various levels of filmmaking and film consumption as we get action from cast and crew on set and from audience members in the mini-theatres watching the final product. Which brings me back to “write what you know” because I felt that Su had captured how film influences people with believability and such warmth that it seemed to bear the mark of real-life experiences.
So, who is Su Yu-chun? She is a director who hails from Kaohsiung, Taiwan but now resides in Japan. Her filmmaking career began with studying at National Taiwan University of Arts. Her graduation film Down the Road was selected for the Nara-wave section of the Nara International Film Festival 2018. Following that, she earned an award from the PIA Film Festival for her short film It’s Not That Pigs Problem (2021). Inch Forward (2024) is her graduation work from the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts and it played in the Indie Forum section of the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024.
Eager to find out more about her, I took the opportunity to interview her just after the Osaka Asian Film Festival. This review goes out just ahead of Nippon Connection 2024 where Inch Forward will also play (May 30).
My thanks go out to director Su for taking the time to answer these questions!
I was really taken with your film from the first time I saw it. I felt that it really gave an insight into the joys and difficulties of being an indie filmmaker and what it’s like to live with cinema. The characters all felt thoughtfully realised and also real as well as being motivators for Kiriko so everything slotted into place without a feeling of contrivance/clumsy exposition.
The film is always beautiful to look at and there is a liveliness to the blocking and also the visual movements you used.
What inspired you to become a filmmaker and why did you want to study at TUA?
Actually, I never thought of becoming a film director. When I entered the film program at the Taiwan University of Arts, I thought I wanted to be a cameraman, but in my second year of college, the class selected four projects to be filmed, and the project I presented was accepted, so I directed for the first time. I enjoyed my first experience as a director, and there was an unspoken agreement that if I directed a short film in my second year, I would continue in that role after my third year, so I made another short film in my third year, and from then on, I forgot my dream of becoming a cameraman.
I saw 2/Duo (1996) at the 2017 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, featuring Nobuhiro Suwa. It was truly amazing to watch, and when I heard during a Q&A with director Suwa that he had improvised this film, I was filled with surprise. From there, I looked up Suwa on Wikipedia and found out that he teaches at the TUA, and I decided that I wanted to study film under director Suwa.
Prior to Inch Forward, you had shot a number of films in Taiwan. After those experiences what was it like working with a Japanese cast and crew?
As for filmmaking, I don’t think it is much different from Taiwan. However, I thought that Japanese actors are treated too politely or there is a distance between actors and crew. However, I think actors are part of the film crew, so I wanted to create a place where it is as easy as possible for actors to act and express their opinions.
To work with Japanese crew, you need to speak Japanese. I think that there are times when you have to use phrases with people who speak the same language as you do. However, I am limited in the Japanese I can use, so I have no choice but to speak clearly and directly. It is precisely because we don’t speak the same language that we were able to communicate with each other and understand each other properly.
How much of Inch Forward is based on your own experiences? Is Kiriko you? Are you a Libra and also indecisive? Did you also get stuck on a beach at some point?
It is mostly based on real experiences. Two of the scriptwriters said they wrote Kiriko based on me. I’m a Gemini, not a Libra, but I can’t always decide. I was stuck on the beach on one of my location shoots when I was making a movie in Taiwan. I was saved by a man who goes fishing there by accident.
Nairu Yamamoto showed up in On a Boat, which was also at Osaka. I enjoyed seeing her flex different sets of acting muscles, from confident and tough in that film, to the more nuanced and vulnerable in Inch Forward, What made Nairu the right fit for the role of Kiriko?
The reason why I cast Nairu Yamamoto is because we made a short film together called Kagami (Mirror). After that, I wanted her to be in a feature film as well, so I wrote the project by guesswork. Nairu is a sensitive and hardworking person, and I think that through her own efforts, she gave a performance that I thought was the right fit for the role of Kiriko.
I really enjoyed the visual liveliness. The camera is often roving around or recording things from an interesting angle. There is one slow zoom in Inch Forward that is brilliant, the one where Takimoto is giving Kiriko a dressing down and listing all of the failures of the production. It focussed the viewer on the crises Kiriko faces and really raised the tension of the scene. I also liked your use of visual transitions like an iris shot that zeroes in on the face of the woman recording people on the street. The CG green screen sliding in was also a treat! The film was full of graceful ways to communicate information or enter/exit scenes.
What was your approach to the visual design (did you storyboard?) and how important is the use of these techniques in your films?
I felt that I was weak about shots, so I studied a book called ‘Master Shot’ intensely before cranking [starting]. The scene where Takimoto is giving Kiriko a dressing down and listing all of the failures of the production shot was what was written in “Master Shot”.
I almost didn’t write storyboards, only the CG part, which I had to share with the crew, so I did draw it, but everyone said I was not good at it.
I talked a lot with the cinematographer about the visual design, he suggested zoom in cut and moving shots, and he always had great ideas.
The ways to communicate information or enter/exit scenes was referring to Juzo Itami’s film Tampopo. I thought it was a bit embarrassing when I edited it, but everyone on the crew said it was a good idea, so I included it.
The use of these techniques was for the audience to enjoy the film.
What was the deal with the woman recording people smiling, anyway?
Actually that was me. The woman is a student in a film school and she lets Kiriko remember the way to shoot film is free.
One of the other wonderful things about the film is the sense that everyone is connected by film. Even the thinly-sketched characters. What place does film hold in your life?
It was like my life is only film. (When I wrote that just now, I felt a little sad but that is really it). There is nothing I have kept doing as long as film. So I watch film, make film, love film.
What do you want audiences to take away from the film?
I wish the audience is reminded of their own memories or they remember someone and be encouraged after they have seen the film.
And before I forget, why do indie films always go to the beach?
That’s actually what my friend said to me. I also always shoot at beaches. In this film I wanted to include the sea scene, and I was afraid that my friend would say the same thing to me again, so I included that line as a self-deprecating joke.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions!
Thanks for taking the time to check these answer out!
Inch Forward played at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 on March 06 and March 09. It will next be seen at Nippon Connection on May 30.