(This interview was taken in Jun 2006.)

This year’s WSF was held for two days 4 / 19 (Tue), 4 / 20 (Wed). On the first day in the 19th, we had a special guest, film director Takashi Yamazaki, the director of “Always Sunset on Third Street” which was a very big hit in Japan. I (Akiko Sugahara) talked with him about the making of this movie, and what kind of time was this 1960, Japanese people’s life and their dreams, hopes, and nurturing and the Japanese diet.

Sugahara: Thank you so much for coming here for today. Congratulations on winning 12 of Japanese Academy Awards.
Yamazaki: Thank you very much.
Sugahara: At that time when I invited you, it was before you won the Academy Awards. I thought you are going to win, but what did you think?
Yamazaki: Actually, I didn’t think at all that I can get any (laughs). Normally, sort of serious films have taken film prizes, and my movie ‘’always'’ had so much jokes, and it was kind of entertainment movie, so I was thinking that our movie has nothing to do with prizes.
Sugahara: I really feel this is the movie that after watching this, people in this generation who are here today, can feel that these scenes are very real and fell nostalgic, and cry, or laugh, or remind their own childhood.

Yamazaki: Well, yeah that is true. This movie’s point was to make people fell ‘’yeah, it was really true!!'’ to the target that knows shohwa period Well, so I tried to put this kind scenes a lot.
Sugahara: First, Can I ask your age? (Laughs)
Yamazaki: Oh, yeah! (Laughs) I was born in 1964, and I am 41 years old.
Sugahara: So, you have nothing to do with Showa 33 years (laughs)
Yamazaki: Yeah, I know. I think who knows that time, I am sure they will feel that why this guy is making this movie!?
Sugahara: In the VTR, you just said that you were reluctant making this movie, but how did you decided to make this movie?
Yamazaki: This movie’s produce is about 55 year’s old guy, and he is almost same age with Ippei in this movie. He must have had the best time around that time, so he have strong desire to go back at around those time, and he always says to me ‘’Hey Yamasaki, its very good to make movies from Showa times. It will be big hit definitely'’
However, I knew that it is a lie, and he just wanted to go back to that time, and so I was all the time, hiding not to be in the talk.
However, one day, he brought me a cartoon called “Sunset on Third Street ” and this cartoon was drawing human’s life just in 16 pages., and I pretty much liked this, so when he gave me this idea, I said ‘’yeah, it sounds good'’.
But I just meant that it is very good idea, but just as an idea, and not meaning at all that I am going to direct this movie. But the producer thought that Yamasaki is going to direct this movie, and then everybody started to think that I am going to do this, and then after I did not get what is going on, but after all I was drawn to do this movie (laughs).
Sugahara: So that was how you made such a wonderful result?
Yamazaki: Yeah, that is life. None is sure what will happen

Sugahara: it might feel you bit retro, but I felt like you are expressing realistically how they looked at that time. Ginza area and its details till the old shopping streets and nearly completed Tokyo towers were expressed with using CG. Did you put pretty much energy to re-create authentically?
Yamazaki: I usually use 90& energy to design products, but this time, I had to use mode than 50% of it to collect data.
For example, they don’t have data at all in Ueno Station.
They just have like black and white photographs that show one man darkly and a post behind slightly, but it is black and white, and it is out of the point.
But still our staff will check these photos and guess it might have been like this and this, but this Ueno station is shaped so complicated.
So, we somehow, could get a drawing of Ueno station from great people, because we did all the ways to get more information, but still we could not get what the drawings are meaning.
We had the drawing sheet from up above and the drawing sheet in profile, but they were so complicated to every one of us had to tilt our head.

Sugahara: This movie’s future part must be the world of Star Wars right?
It is miracle that one person could digest this story, because it had such long distance from 30’s of shohwa.
By the way, what kind of childhood you had? At any rate, you are an amazing CG artist that we could rarely seen in recent years that Japan have created, and that is producing great works. So, we are really interested in what kind of parents did grow up such a special artist, and what kind of food you have eaten when you were young.

Yamazaki: Yeah, well, it is hard to tell about myself, but I think I was interested in many kinds of stuff.
Yeah, I remember once my parents went to a kind of a bazaar, and they bought me a science magazine which was meant for adults.
I really could not understand, but I felt they write so much about interesting stuff on it.
I think it was older version of Newton’s and such kind of magazines.
Sugahara: in the Sunset on Third Street, it was a scene that children are playing with hula hoops and stilts.
Yamazaki: Yeah, I was very good at walking on stilts.
It was always on stilts about three hours.
I was so good that in my childhood, I thought I am like living on the stilts (laughs)
Sugahara: Yeah, actually, I am also pretty good at stilts.
Since I had two brothers, first I started at about 30cm, and finally I could ride until about 80cm high.
Yamazaki: Ups, that sounds like you were far better than me (laughs).
I could just be on it until about 50cm.
But I did go to my friend’s home just with one leg of stilts!