Naomi Kawase (Nara, Japan, 1969) has taken advantage of the fact that she is filming in Barcelona these days as an actress under the orders of Lluís Miñarro to inaugurate a cycle on her work at the Filmoteca de Catalunya. The most international Japanese director will be present today at 8:00 p.m. in the Chomón room in a session in which her film Aguas Tranquils (2014) will be screened, also co-produced by Miñarro, whom she met some time ago at the San Sebastián Festival. and that she considers her “masterpiece.”
Throughout the month of May, a total of seven documentaries and three feature-length fiction films will be shown – Caracol (Katatsumori), See heaven (Ten Mitake), El sol se sets, Cielo, viento, fuego, agua, tierra, Tarachime, Genpin , Shara and A pastry shop in Tokyo. “I am happy to be in Barcelona and to be able to participate in a project by Lluís Miñarro, as well as to see Aguas Tranquils again, one of the films that changed my life a lot,” Kawase said at a press conference, where he remembered his adoptive mother, who died 13 years ago “and for Japan the number 13 since death is celebrated in a significant way.”
Adopted by an elderly couple and without having ever met her parents, for Kawase, cinema became the perfect tool through which to “search” for her origins, to investigate her identity. That is why her work is full of autobiographical elements. “I make films so that we can enjoy life more,” she confesses.
In her first documentaries, filmed in Super-8, 16 mm and video, the filmmaker explored her identity and that of her relatives, themes that have characterized her filmography, which addresses areas such as family, tradition, philosophical aspects and mourning through the feelings of his characters. After the death of her adoptive mother, she has commented that she was plagued with questions, such as “what unites me with this world?” Precisely, filming Calm Waters was a kind of catharsis since she traveled to the island where her ancestors came from, the scene of the initiatory romance between a couple of teenagers.
Regarding the film he is working on now, Emergency Exit, he did not want to give many details but he did say that the story takes place entirely in a giant bus on which passengers of different ages, countries and professions board. “I loved the script, it seemed crazy to me because everything is so mixed together, like a toy box.” “During the pandemic, people could not communicate and I think that with this film Luís wanted to give a message about the importance of connection between people,” he said about the Barcelona director and producer, with whom he maintains a beautiful friendship.
Esteve Riambau, director of the Filmoteca, added that he has been able to see Kawase in action filming a scene and that “in addition to being a great director, she is a great actress, on par with the performances in her films with actresses like Juliette Binoche.”
Asked about how she sees current Japanese cinema, the director insisted on the need to promote independent cinema “although it is very difficult” and that “the majority of films that succeed” are very commercial, manga or novels adapted to film. In this sense, he highlighted that he would like Japanese films to become more known internationally: “They are more designed for the domestic audience in Japan, and they do not have much thought of going abroad.”
