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Belonging to the same generation
as Haruki Murakami, I have read his novels since his debut. I sympathize with
the sense of loss and solitude deriving from his literature, a theme often
characterized by our generation which experienced the enthusiasm and excitement
of the late 60s and its inevitable end. This isolation is incorporated in a
somewhat fable-like tone in Murakamis Tony Takitani a short novel published
over a decade ago. Here, isolation carries a genetic quality, passed through
generations and something that cant be undone alone.

Upon adapting the piece into
a film, I realized that because of the particularities of the source material,
reading the expressions of Murakamis characters was no easy task. Because of
this I treated them in a symbolized manner, to express the fact that the character
are very much "created". I also wanted the viewers to feel a familiarity
with them, this is why I used both Issey Ogata and Miyazawa Rie in two roles.
Though I have made films based
on books before, this time I knew that I wasnt going to be able to express the
lucidity and mild temperature of the novel If I based the characters in a more
traditional realistic way like my previous films. I used a narrator as a distancing
tool and I thought that the low tone of his voice would suit the atmosphere. I
also felt able to instinctively, express the parts of the original story while
guarding it's original "serenity" and to not be bound by narrative.

The reasons why I was attracted
to shots comprised of blank spaces like Edward Hoppers paintings, why I built
a simple stage like a small theater to shoot the film, why I shot most of the
scenes by slightly altering the angle of the stage and simply changing the interior,
why I had very few people appear in the film by asking the leading actor and actress
to play two roles each and why I decolorized the print to tone down the color
are all based on my attempt to answer demands brought about by Murakamis literary
world, which may be solid but is nonetheless floating, a few centimeters off realitys
ground all the same. I have a feeling Tony Takitani has resulted in a film not
only extremely different from my previous films, but also very strange in texture,
which no one has experienced before.
JUN ICHIKAWA.
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