Iwai Shunji：Keep the heart young

What would Itsuki Fujii, the protagonist in the film Love Letter, be like if she lived to the age of 50? This question got director Iwai Shunji thinking for a long time. The years roll by and Iwai Shunji has turned from a literary youth and “the godfather of pure love films” to a 51-year-old mature man. Although his shoulder-length hair has turned gray, he still has a young heart. His advice: “Just stop growing old. Of course, this is not possible. But what we can do is to keep the heart young. I think my mental age stays between 28 to 33 years old.”

Once Gloriously Famous: the godfather of pure love films

In 1995, the 32-year-old Iwai Shunji shot his first major film, Love Letter, which established his international reputation and won the hearts of audiences. Shunji had started trying to shoot films back in his days at Yokohama National University. Recalling that beautiful youth, he said: “When I was young, when I was in university, I tried to write a film script, then shoot a film every year. At that time, I was always short of stories. I had to think very hard to come up with a story. In fact, even now I still have to think very hard [about the story] just as I did then,” he said. “Speaking of original dreams, they remind me of the strong desire I had to shoot films when I was 18. Even now I can\'t understand what happened to me then. It was like falling in love with a girl. So even now, I still can think of the feeling I had when I was 17, 18. I hope I can always work with the state of mind of a young director. ”

After Love Letter, he shot many films with youth as their topic: Swallowtail Butterfly, April Story, All About Lily Chou-Chou, and Hana & Alice. Although they never reached the same heights as Love Letter, their beautiful and unique movie language won Iwai Shunji the mantle of the “godfather of pure love films,” a title he claims to dislike.

Films about youth such as So Young and My Old Classmate are successful in China as the genre becomes all the rage. Iwai Shunji believes youth topic movies are effective because of the passion of their creators. "Directors who shoot such movies should firstly believe their subject is very interesting before shooting it. In this way they can attract the audience,” he said.

Once at a loss, "barely feel anything new"

Iwai Shunji is an all-rounder. In addition to making movies, he is good at painting, music, and writing. His handsome and unruly appearance has earned him a large number of Chinese fans. But even a beaux-arts idol like he has also suffered from loss.

In 2006, he was caught up in a "barely feeling anything new" numb state. He left Japan for the United States and spent five years there, returning with his new work Vampire which failed to get the expected applause.

Today, when asked what would Itsuki Fujii, the protagonist in his film Love Letter, be like if she lived to the age of 50, the 51-year-old Iwai Shunji thought for a long time and teased his hair before slowly saying:, “Itsuki Fujii should be a mom ... I met the actress Miho Nakayama and I didn’t feel she was any different from 20 years ago. There was an actor playing an old man in that film when he was 50. In this sense, I can be seen as an old man. I started to feel I was a little bit old when I was 45.”

Iwai Shunji said he tried to stop “aging from within,” keeping his spiritual age between 28 and 33 years. That\'s exactly his age when he shot Love Letter. “If I really had the mentality of a 50-year-old, then I would not be able to produce youth-type works. Recently I met a senior Japanese actor who was very famous for starring in youth films when I was a child. He told me that he felt more energetic and motivated than before, which greatly impressed me.”

Investment Shortage Trap

Iwai Shunji has broadened the themes of his films beyond focusing on youth topics. “I have many ideas in my mind and also have written many scripts on various topics. If conditions allowed, I would complete a film each year, but it can’t be achieved without investors. Some TV stations have invited me to write TV plays. But for a film script, it is very difficult to get through the scrutiny applied by the filmmaker and the producer and this greatly annoys me,” he said. As a famous Japanese director, Iwai Shunji’s "no film to shoot" predicament reflects the state of the Japanese industry. “The film industry in Japan is not positive and most Japanese directors are complaining of the cruel reality," he said. "Now, less than 20 percent of directors in Japan can receive and complete a film every year. Most of the films are adapted from comics and novels, there are hardly any original movies.”

By contrast, he quite admires the flourishing Chinese film industry: “I have heard that young Chinese directors have a big market and 90% of Chinese films are products of young directors. If Japanese directors heard this news, they would rush to China," he said. "Now in Japan, TV series enjoy an obvious edge over films. Therefore, young Japanese film directors can only try to present their products on the internet. It\'s very difficult for them to make money.”

On SIFF, “Ms. Gong is a tender
-hearted person”

Invited to be a member of the SIFF Golden Goblet jury panel, Iwai Shunji became exhausted after watching a few entries.“Every entry in this year’s SIFF is of variety and interest, and thus I am having a lot of fun here.” He is impressed by jury panel leader Gong Li. “Ms. Gong is really a tender-hearted person, and she has been taking care of us in the past few days. Yesterday we had our first official discussion and I was very impressed as she listened carefully to six jury members.”

Shunji has his own individual criteria for judging films.“Some film festivals only pay attention to artistic or literary films and their juries reject the more commercial productions. I insist that the ultimate goal for a film is to bring entertainment to the audience and therefore commercial films should never be rejected. Entries in the SIFF award vary in type and reflect my thinking.”

Shunji was keen to share his experience as a successful director. "All of us have to choose an occupation. If you choose to be a director, you may find it difficult to carry on for long," he said. "But if you are determined to create films, you should put all of yourself into it, delivering yourself to an audience which feels you have put everything into your creation.”

He cited the example of Yasujiro Ozu. "He put his whole life into the movie Tokyo Story. In many situations, we put our own life into the film. But we will also encounter those sci-fi or murder themes about which we have no experience. For me, even in a film about an insect, it will show the essence of your life. What matters is your attitude.”

Iwai Shunji believes it is quite difficult for a director to accomplish perfect work in his life. "There are many limitations when you shoot a film and they come from investors and producers. Because of these limitations, only 10 percent in each of my films is what I wanted," he admitted. Shunji said shooting a movie is to constantly look for balance. "After achieving fame, you may have a high budget and more freedom than you experienced before. But that cannot guarantee you will get a more satisfying result than last time. From my point of view, a director should not be too affected by the lure of money, no matter how big the budget. Every creation should be treated as the upcoming birth of a child.”