Sunday, May 21, 2023

Suzume stage event with director Shinkai Makoto (9th viewing)

 
Suzume is in its final stretch at Japanese cinemas, with 27 May 2023 being its last day of screening (although there will be a special screening on 28 May 2023 at Kessennuma Community Hall). Since 12 May 2023, a "director's retake" version has been screening in cinemas, and director Shinkai Makoto has been going around Japan for stage events. Well, today, such a stage event was held in Yokohama, and of course, there was no way I was going to miss this (more on this at the end of the post...) Anyway, this is my 9th viewing of Suzume no Tojimari.


After the screening of the movie, director Shinkai Makoto made his appearance on stage.

This time, he brought with him the chair prop Sota, which had been traveling around the world with him (13 cities in nine countries). He even said that the chair's "neck" is a bit loose from all the beating taken from those travels. The lady on stage with him is the person in charge of promoting the film. She is from Toho and has been working with the director to promote his films since Garden of Words. She mentioned that today was the 192nd day that Suzume has been screening in Japan, and the film is also the top earning Japanese film outside Japan, bringing in 27 billion yen at the box office overseas. A short video clip was even aired as part of the event with the film's various box office achievements and shots taken while at overseas events.

Director Shinkai Makoto started by saying that this round of stage events is different from before. In the past, there were stage events to promote his films; this time, it was to thank fans for their strong support, and in a way get ready to move on to the next film. He asked for a show of hands and there were less than 10 from the audience who were actually watching Suzume for the first time today. Wow, I wonder how they got their tickets. Most had watched the movie at least five times, and there were more than a handful who watched at least 20 times. Only one in the audience was not a resident of Yokohama, having come from Tokyo for the event. The director mentioned that, at the events yesterday (in Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagoya), there were people who came from China and South Korea, besides other parts of Japan such as Shikoku.
 
The director then went on to read excerpts of a letter he received from a Chinese fan. She herself was a victim of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and her hometown was Beichuan County which suffered heavy damage from the earthquake. She mentioned how, as a 14-year-old student back then, her teacher had ushered the students to safety, and in front of her eyes, she saw the building collapsing on him and others. She subsequently managed to get into the University of Tokyo and wanted to conduct research on earthquakes, but switched her research theme halfway as it was too painful for her. She now works in the entertainment industry in Japan, and has found her own "Sota" too. The letter contained many episodes from her life, and the director skipped most of them, only highlighting a few. She mentioned that she could absolutely understand how Suzume could have dropped everything and went off on a road trip with Sota, being a disaster victim herself. As a disaster victim, there is a part of her that was stuck in that time, even as life continues to go on. The letter was really touching and I was crying most of the time, and I hope the director will find a way to share that letter with everyone. I simply cannot do her justice trying to summarise her letter here.

Next, the director talked about a question he received when he was in London. A young girl asked him which character is him in the movie. He said that his answer was that he is Tamaki (Suzume's aunt who is her guardian too), having become a parent himself now. And there are also times when, like Tamaki, he wants to tell his child, "Give me back my life!"

Someone from the audience asked the director about Suzume's daily life, since she seemed to be exceptionally fit physically. Director Shinkai Makoto answered that, in his mind, Suzume wasn't in any club activity in school, being unable to commit herself to something fully as a part of her remained stuck in time after surviving the earthquake disaster. But as someone who grew up in the countryside, it would be normal to have a certain level of physical fitness. I guess when you cycle up and down a hill every day to go to school, you are going to become really fit.

The event ended with a final question from the audiance, who asked if he will make a film with a pair of female protagonists. The original concept of Suzume had the protagonists as a pair of girls name Nanoka and Tamaki, but during discussions with the producers, they told the director that his fans probably wanted to see a romantic element in his film, so in the end, he made Suzume go on this road trip with a guy, but in the form of the chair so that the romantic element did not overshadow the rest of the story. But he is really interested in the idea of having a pair of female protagonists, so I guess we can look forward to that in his future films.

Director Shinkai Makoto ended this stage event by thanking everyone before he left for his next event (in Ikebukuro).

Before I end this post, a bit about my luck in getting a ticket for this event.
 
The last time such an event was held in Yokohama was on 24 December 2022 (Christmas Eve; read about it here). That's almost five months ago. This time, the venue was a bit smaller. The previous event was in a Dolby Cinema and really huge, with a capacity of 325. This time, it was in a smaller place, with only 201 seats. Tickets went on sale online at midnight last Friday (Friday night, Saturday morning). I was distracted by something else, and visited the website at 00:02 and the tickets were ALL GONE! I was on the verge of tears, but I didn't give up. I kept refreshing the page, and around 00:05, I managed to get into page for choosing a seat. It seemed someone didn't complete the purchase process. That seat was in the last row. I clicked immediately, and proceeded to make payment, but got kicked out before I could finish the process. So more clicks to refresh the page. Finally, at around 00:07, another seat opened up, somewhere in the middle, and this time, I managed to finish the purchasing process! I was really lucky! 🎉🎊

So when I saw that a few in the audience today were watching Suzume for the first time, I was like, wow, they have never watched the film before, but they took the time and effort to log in at midnight to get those tickets. I really respect their love for the director.

Okay, that's all for now. There is a final stage event on 27 May 2023, which will be streamed live to cinemas all over Japan. I am hoping to get a ticket for it at the local cinema. Wish me luck! 😉

Update 23 May 2023: Today, the official Twitter account for the film announced that the film has achieved the following:
Exceeded 35 million viewers outside Japan
Exceeded 46 million viewers worldwide
Exceeded 28 billion yen at the box office outside Japan
Exceeded 42 billion yen at the box office worldwide
Exceeded RMB 800 million at the box office in China
Topped the box office for a Japanese film in India
The embedded video is the video clip that was shown during the stage event, but with the figures updated.

Posted by Teck at 5/21/2023 08:18:00 PM

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