The film "Sleeping and Waking" by tofubeats Disco Hamaguchi Ryusuke: Theory of craftsmanship with no excuses.
. There is no need to dream big dreams. How do we present what is in front of us now to the world? Only by thinking it through can our expression reach the world. The dialogue between the up-and-coming filmmaker and the musician was surprisingly stimulating, despite their calm exchange... The film will be released on September 1, 2012."Sleeping and Waking."The film is directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who also directed the film in the first film, and features the theme song and music by tofubeats. The film is about a woman, Asako (Erika Karada), who meets a man named Ryohei (Masahiro Higashide in a double role!), who is the exact duplicate of Mugi, a man she once fell in love with but who disappeared without a trace. The two have spun the original novel by Yuka Shibasaki into a film work from both visual and sound perspectives. The film, which is also being talked about as an entry in the Competition section of the 71st Cannes Film Festival, and its theme song, "The Last Time I Saw You," will be released in the spring of 2012.RIVER"The two discuss their theories on manufacturing, starting with the secret story behind the creation of the "tofubeats" album , and why tofubeats uses Auto-Tune!
Tokyo . Ryohei (Higashide Masahiro) meets Asako (Karada Erika) who comes to his office to deliver coffee. Ryohei expresses his feelings for Asa (Erika Karada) in a straightforward manner, and although she is confused, she is drawn to him and the two grow closer. However, Asako has a secret that she has not told Ryohei. Ryohei looks exactly like the man she once fell in love with (Masahiro Higashide, in a dual role).
Left: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
. Born in 1978 in Kanagawa Prefecture, he received high acclaim at film festivals in Japan and abroad for his 2008 film "PASSION," a graduation project from the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts. He directed the Japan-Korea co-production "THE DEPTHS" (2010), "Nami no oto" and "Nami no koe," films based on interviews with victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake, "Utau hito" (2011-2013, co-directed by Ko Sakai), a record of folk tales from the Tohoku region, and the over 4-hour feature "Intimacy" (2012). Happy Hour," produced through the Ryusuke Hamaguchi Improvisation Acting Workshop in Kobe, won the Best Actress Award at the 68th Locarno International Film Festival and was a big hit.
Right: tofubeats
. Born in 1990 and currently resides in Kobe, Japan. He started his music career in junior high school and performed at WIRE, the largest techno event in Japan, when he was a junior in high school, as the youngest performer in the history of the event. Later, "Mercury feat. Minister Onomatopoeia" reached No. 1 on the iTunes Store singles chart overall. Since her major label debut, she has garnered attention with numerous collaborations with popular artists such as Chisato Moritaka (Chisato Moritaka), Noko no noko (Sacred Kamattechan), and Takashi Fujii, and has released three albums. 2018 saw the release of the TV Tokyo drama "DENKEI GIRL - VIDEO GIRL AI 2018-" and the movie "Sleep or Wake Up," which opens on September 1, 2018. In 2018, she has expanded her field of activities, including the theme song and accompaniment for the TV Tokyo drama "DENKEI SHOJO -VIDEO GIRL AI 2018-" and the movie "SLEEP BUT WAKE UP" which will be released on September 1, and finally her 4th album "RUN" is scheduled for release on October 3.
My first film music ... , but I still want to do it.
When the movie was over and "RIVER," the theme song by Mr. TO-FU, was played during the end credits, I was surprised at the perfect synchronization between the movie and the world of the song. . How did you come to be involved in this project in the first place?
HamaguchiMy previous film, "Happy Hour," was shot in Kobe . It was a place with which I had a close relationship, as it had an advance screening at the Motomachi Movie Theater in Kobe and was screened there for a long time afterwards, and it was there that Mr. Torf came to see my film in private.
to-fuMy house is near there, and it was a movie about my hometown, Kobe, so I just happened to see it . . I was very impressed.
HamaguchiHe also wrote about his impressions on Twitter. At that time, I did not know Mr. Toff that well, but Kenichi Yasuda wrote that he and Mr. Toff were very happy to have the three of us together.tripartite (three man) talkYou have organized the
You are a rock comic writer living in Kobe who has written such books as "Kobe, What's the Point of Writing?
to-fuIt was fun at that time, wasn't it?
HamaguchiThen the project to adapt "Sleep or Awake" into a movie started, and I was having a hard time deciding on the music for the movie with the producer. . Because the way a movie is perceived depends on the music. One day, one of the assistant producers said to me, "How about you, Toofu-san? Apparently, he had been trying to find the right time to ask me since he read the trilogy (laughs). (Laughs.) Since I had talked to him directly, I had been listening to and liking his music, so I said, "Why not? I said, "That's great!
to-fuWell, thank you very much. I would like to give something to that girl ...... .
HamaguchiI'm not sure if it would qualify as so-called "film music," but I thought it would be great if you could do it, so I made an offer.
How did you feel about the sudden offer , Mr. Torf?
to-fuAs an audience member, I thought "Happy Hour" was a great movie, and I had no idea that I would be working with Mr. Hamaguchi. and I never thought I would be involved with Mr. Hamaguchi in any way.
HamaguchiI think we both did (laughs).
to-fuWhen there was a trilogy, I was like, "I'm so glad we get to meet!" (laughs). I talked with Mr. Yasuda at that time, but I didn't have an image that there were many good things coming out of Kobe in terms of art. The time was around the same time, but I had only heard about "a certain exhibition plant" that went up in flames at the end of 2017, or something like that. ...... So, Yasuda-san and I told him, "Thank you so much for such a definitive film in moyamoya Kobe!" (laughs).
HamaguchiNo way, sir! (Laughter)
to-fuOn the day of the trilogy, I brought a box of sweets (laughs). (Laughs) . Later, I was really surprised when I received the offer for this project. It was my first time doing film music, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. ...... but I still wanted to do it, so I accepted the offer.
. a way of making music that is not Hollywood cinematic .
To begin with, what was your impression of Director Hamaguchi's work? I think you mean that Hamaguchi's works had an appeal that made you take a new step forward.
to-fuAfter seeing "Happy Hour" and "PASSION," my perception of film changed considerably. Happy Hour" was made in a workshop, and when I saw it filmed by amateurs, people who live in the same prefecture as me, who acted in the film, it really hit home for me.
What does that mean?
to-fuIt's a matter of taste, but I don't really go to see Hollywood movies. There is not much that I can relate to, or I feel little sympathy for them.
. and that goes back to making music. For example, I would like to invite a string player and add strings in a big way, but it is not very realistic in my life right now. . I think about how I can make it dynamic without doing that.
I see.
to-fuIn the case of movies, it is not often that we can see flashy car chases, gun battles, or huge explosions in real life. I don't think there are many people, in either film or music, who have faced the question of how to create something dynamic without doing such things. That's what impressed me so much about your work, Mr. Hamaguchi. I thought, "It's a happy thing to work with someone like that.
Even when DJing, I sometimes play quiet songs to liven things up. It is very motivating to be able to work with someone who can talk like that. . That's why I accepted the job.
HamaguchiThank you . During the trilogy, you mentioned that "Happy Hour" is like a DJ performance. It's a time of idleness, or a time when nothing much is happening as far as drama is concerned, but because of that, the smallest things - not physical explosions, but emotional explosions - seem to be happening. . but it seems to me that the smallest things are causing an emotional explosion, even if not a physical explosion.
The world of this work, "Sleep or Awake," is exactly like that. The main character's emotions, which fluctuate in the midst of everyday life, are sparked at a certain moment.
HamaguchiIt was a great pleasure for me to hear such a comment from Mr. Toff, who is actually a DJ.
Before creating, we cannot see what kind of world we want to create.
What kind of world did you intend to create with your music for the film?
HamaguchiTo tell the truth, I didn't really have an image of what kind of world I wanted to create. I had a realistic idea of what kind of world I wanted to create, but I didn't really have an image of what kind of world I wanted to create.
This approach is a common thread that runs through Hamaguchi's work.
HamaguchiI am not sure if I can call each of them "materials," but I would like to share them with you at ....... As for Mr. Torf's music, I had no idea what kind of music he would create, since he had never worked on a play. But that turned out to be a positive factor. I thought that if we used what Mr. Torf, an excellent musician, had created, we would be able to create something very different from what we had in mind at the time. I had high hopes that a chemical reaction would occur.
to-fuIn fact, the first offer was half a throwaway (laughs).
HamaguchiHahahahaha! I really did, sorry about that (laughs).
to-fu. but only for the theme song, it was decided that the theme would be "river".
The theme song "RIVER" is a song about the way a river is a place where various thoughts and images are mingled with each other. How did you go about writing the music for the song?
to-fuTo be specific, the theme is the Yodogawa River, isn't it? I also live in the Kansai region, so I went to the Yodo River anyway (laughs).
HamaguchiSo you went to the site first (laughs).
to-fuMy previous house in Kobe was also next to a river, so I went there as well. . I thought, "I don't have much of an image of the river in my mind. My parents lived in a new town and did not live by a river, so the only symbolic river I had an image of was the Kamo River. . So, I started by reading Mr. Shibasaki's original story and script and rethinking the river.
Finally, I read a book titled "Why Rivers Are Made" (written by Kantaro Fujioka, Kodansha Blue Backs) and thought, "I feel like I can do that," so I started to make it.
Blue Backs is a series of introductory science books, right? How did that lead to "RIVER"?
to-fuWhen I was told that the theme was "rivers," I wondered why the theme was about rivers in the first place. I then did some research and found that rivers have various "river actions," such as carrying stones and other materials, cutting down the land, and circulating water. I thought that this is similar to love, love, and desire. I now understand how the river works and how interesting it is. I thought I could connect this to the theme of "Sleeping and Waking" and make it into a song. I never imagined that I would be able to write a song after reading Blue Backs (laughs).
HamaguchiAwesome! I would love to read that blue backs...lol. But still, this is already one theory of manufacturing.
. When I received "RIVER," I was really excited. I even felt like, "Thank you for creating such great music in this world. We were shooting the film in a sequential manner, but when we received "RIVER" at the beginning of the film, I felt as if I was given a guide that said, "We can just work toward this theme song. If this song is played at the very end of the film, we will be all right.
. It is exactly the image of a river with various materials flowing into it as tributaries. In the first place, you were offered the "theme song," and you were attracted to TOFU's "song," weren't you?
HamaguchiYes, I do. . I like the way you sing. I like the way he sings. His songs have a sense of "going straight into the heart" of the audience. I offered to do the theme song for "Sleep or Awake" because I thought it would be a great idea if you could do it.
. why do tof beets use autotune?
I would like to ask you about the relationship between your voice and Auto-Tune (a kind of voice effect). In "RIVER," you are singing with Auto-Tune applied, and I think it fits the floating atmosphere of the world of the work very well.
HamaguchiHe is a man loved and loved by Auto-Tune, isn't he (laughs)?
to-fuHahahahaha! No, I'm simply no good without autotune (lol).
HamaguchiBut there is something strange about autotune, isn't there? Normally, the voice comes from the body, and I think it expresses the physical state of the body in a very revealing way. However, autotune removes the physicality of the voice and takes the voice to a different, more abstract place.
to-fuWe can "externalize" it. That's the beauty of it. If it were just to cure tone deafness, I probably would not use auto-tune so much. By becoming more like a machine, I am going "outside" my own body.
HamaguchiWill you be able to treat your own singing as a single phoneme?
to-fuYes, I do . . rather, I hate my singing. ...... . I've been active for about 10 years now, but I'm really tone deaf. When I first put in a tentative song for "RIVER," I thought, "Let's try turning off the auto-tune," and I did, but it was unbearable to listen to (laughs). . I started using auto-tune because I was not good at vocals, that's how it started.
I was wondering who I should ask to do the vocals for "RIVER" at the end, but when I sent the demo, Mr. Hamaguchi said, "I want to go with your vocals, Toofu-san. I was like, "For real? (laughs).
HamaguchiAt the time of the demo, you were using auto-tune, right?
to-fuYes, I do. I almost never let people listen to anything that I haven't used autotune on (laughs).
HamaguchiBut "RIVER" had a rawness that I had never heard in your music before. I really liked that.
to-fuThe orchestra is organic, the song starts out as a narrative, and the voices are auto-tuned, so to say that the song is distorted in a good way is an understatement. It is the type of song that I would not normally make if it were not for this film, so it was a lot of fun.
Is it true in filmmaking as well that one can freshen up the world of a work by stepping outside of it? In "Sleep or Awake," after Asako has already met Ryohei, there is a scene in which an advertisement with a reflection of wheat appears outside the window of the restaurant where they are having tea, just like a scene from a film by the master filmmaker Kieslowski. . The feel of the work continues to be fresh, I thought.
HamaguchiIn film, especially in the scale of production that I am currently working on, one of the conditions is that only realistic images can be used as a basis. But on the other hand, since it is a fiction and a drama, it is not possible to keep it realistic.
Therefore, they introduce a kind of fiction or imitation. Higashide-san's "one person playing two roles" is a prime example of this. However, I feel that by doing so, it is possible to bring out raw human emotions. I am trying to find a way to approach that kind of universality through my creations.
. Is it possible that the method of having professional actors memorize the lines and perform them just before the performance is also intended to create such a vivid sense of the real world?
HamaguchiYes . I think acting is really difficult. No matter how much you try, a line is still just a line. That can't be helped.
Then, on the other hand, I would have the audience remember the dialogue as a kind of character surface, and approach it as a text that is completely different from themselves, as if they were simply uttering the text. In this way, I feel that an interesting fluctuation is created between the "not-self" and the "self.
When you use auto-tuning, do you also have such a sense of "something other than yourself"?
to-fuYes, it's because I won't be myself for a bit that I can put it out there. Also, I don't really like to play an instrument ......, or rather, I have no interest in playing one. I wonder myself why I have no interest in playing an instrument, even though I play music so much and I think it's "nice" when I listen to it.
Perhaps I don't like the idea of becoming integrated, of feeling like my body is being questioned as it is. I am not athletic, nor do I have a good sense of sound (laughs). (Laughs.) At that time, auto-tuning allows me to "externalize" one thing. I have come this far by relying on that.
HamaguchiYou also sing in auto-tune in your live performances.
to-fuI wouldn't even play live if I didn't have autotune! (LOL)
HamaguchiHahaha! (laughs) What kind of feeling is that? . It is also different from the fact that you are using it as a material for creating songs, isn't it?
to-fuDuring the live performance, my voice that comes back on the monitor is already "the voice of the machine. I don't hear my own voice. So, I feel like a cyborg. However, there are times when I have to sing a little faster because I have time to process my voice. . basically, it's like something different from myself. . maybe that's what it's like to sway.
Hamaguchi. there is a wavering between myself and the autotune.
to-fuIf I had a live voice, I wouldn't be so loud (laughs).
What we have now, how do we get it out?
Listening to the two of you, I get the sense that your attitudes toward manufacturing and your awareness of the environment around you are very much in sync with each other.
HamaguchiI don't know if you can call it "synchronized" or not. ...... I simply think that when I look at your music videos ... and you can think of this as the greatest of compliments, but I think they are extremely cost-effective.
to-fuHahahahaha! . that's a small budget to begin with (laughs).
HamaguchiNo, I have the feeling that it probably didn't cost that much money, but how could it be so cool? . I am very surprised, partly because I don't have a music video mindset. In particular, "Run" is basically a normal song sung in Kobe.
to-fuYes, I took pictures in Kobe , and also in Odaiba, Tokyo.
HamaguchiI see. In Kobe, you are filming the scenery of your daily life, aren't you? And that is what makes a music video that is viewed by hundreds of thousands of people possible. I think this is an amazing thing. I feel sympathy for that attitude.
I think he is convinced that what he is doing here and now is acceptable to the world. I think that you probably have a sense that what you are doing here and what is happening here can be something that you would not be ashamed to present to the world.
to-fu. rather, it's the only way. . we have no other choice but to present it to the world. Therefore, I will do my best to find the best way to present it to the world. What Mr. Hamaguchi said earlier about the direction of a film being decided after a variety of films have been released is true for us as well.
We have to examine what we have over and over again, and do our best to maximize the performance of the members who are here now, with the luck and background they have. Perhaps our methods are similar. I think we are very similar when you say that the goal of the film was not set from scratch.
HamaguchiIt really is.
to-fuI think DJs are the same way. How do you create the greatest dynamics and trends from the sound sources you have at home? I have been thinking that our mindsets and the direction of our ideas are similar ever since I saw "Happy Hour" for the first time. After hearing about the various aspects of "Sleeping and Waking Up," I realized that this was also the case.
I feel very hopeful that their works will reach the world with such an attitude.
HamaguchiI am not saying that what we are doing here now is really worthwhile ......, but I am thinking that it can be worthwhile, depending on how we do it. I have hope for that, too.
to-fu...Now you've tightened it up super nicely. What a great story I heard (laughs). I'll do my best too!
HamaguchiOh, sorry for closing! I feel like I ordered ochazuke all by myself... (laughs).
