story
Bangkok , the capital of Thailand. It has been five years since Lak, the No. 1 bartender at the popular "Mermaid" on Thaniya Street, the entertainment district specializing in Japanese, came to Bangkok from Issan (northeastern Thailand) to work as a migrant worker. While he lives in a luxury apartment with his Japanese pimp, Binh, his large family lives in Nong Khai province, on the banks of the majestic Mekong River, which flows along the border with Laos. Lac is the son of a feuding mother, Phuong, and a second father, Jimmy, who is now deceased and was in the U.S. military. Lac loves his half-brother, Jimmy, very much.
One night, at a mysterious backstage party, Lac meets his old girlfriend Ozawa for the first time in five years. Ozawa was Lak's first girlfriend when he had just moved out of Nongkhai. Ozawa, a former member of the Self-Defense Forces, is now a sunken group who has abandoned Japan and is now living in Bangkok like a rootless person, earning coins from online games. Ozawa needs money to meet Lack. The two are at a loss.... Then, Ozawa is asked by his former superior, Tomioka, who now runs a store in Bangkok, to investigate real estate in Laos.
Thus, Lak and Ozawa, with several thoughts in their hearts, headed for the border town of Nong Khai to escape Bangkok....
Since ancient times, Isan has been at the mercy of border disputes. The story takes us deep into the darkness of the majestic "Issan Forest" and eventually to Laos, where it begins to reflect the unhealed wounds of the Vietnam War that once gouged Indochina so deeply.

, a sky-tribe parallel world in which characters overlap.

-As the line "Thailand is a paradise!" appears in "Route 20" (2007) and "Saudade" (2011), both of which were previously produced by Kuuzoku, it is evident that Mr. Tomita and Mr. Aizawa have had Thailand in mind for some time. Also, during the stage greeting at the "Bangkok Nights" preview, Mr. Aizawa said, "It's been 10 years in the planning. First of all, why did you decide to make a movie set in Thailand?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)In terms of the 10 years of planning, 10 years ago coincided with the time when we were shooting "Route 20," but Aizawa was already working on the film before we started calling ourselves "Kuuzoku" (Sky Tribe).

Aizawa.In the 1990s, I was a backpacker. I was backpacking in the 90s, and Bangkok, Thailand was a stopover point for my backpack travels to Southeast Asia, India, and other destinations.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodBecause there were no direct flights yet?

Aizawa.: Yes, that's right. So, while traveling around with my 8mm camera, I came up with the idea for the "Babylon" series, which I called "The Asian Backstreet Economy Trilogy. When I walked around Southeast Asia, cab drivers and local people would come up to me and ask me three questions. First, "Do you need a woman? Then, "Do you want drugs? And finally, "Do you want to shoot a gun? . I wondered what the heck this was all about, and that is when I started rolling the camera on the theme of "drugs, weapons (war), and prostitution.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)I went to see the first film in the trilogy, "Hana Monogatari Babylon" (1997), which deals with "narcotics" among the three back-alley economies, at an independent screening that Aizawa and his friends were holding when we were students. A few years later, we co-produced "Route 20" together as Sorazoku. After we finished filming that movie, we talked about going to Southeast Asia together, which he had been telling me about for a long time. This was my first trip abroad in my life.

-And that's why you went to Thailand?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)No, Aizawa had already been to Thailand, so we will go to Cambodia. However, as Den-chan (Deng-chan) mentioned earlier, there are no direct flights to Cambodia, so we had to stay overnight in Bangkok on the way there and on the way back to change flights. While walking around Bangkok that night, I saw a place called Thaniya Street, which would become the theme of "Bangkok Nights.

Aizawa.Tanya is an upscale entertainment district for Japanese tourists and expatriates, so to speak. That is why I never went there when I was backpacking. Backpackers usually gather at cheap lodging areas like Khao San Road.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)Ten years ago, the two of us saw Tanya for the first time together and decided that we definitely wanted to make a film about this place someday. After that, we began to walk around Southeast Asia frequently with our 8mm film rolling, and it was during this time that Aizawa's second film in the "Babylon" series, "Babylon 2 - THE OZAWA" (2012), was made. This film deals with the Vietnam War, or "weapons (war)," and the character "Ozawa," a former member of the Self-Defense Forces, whom I played in "Bangkok Nights," makes his first appearance.

Aizawa.. . and the people who go there with me become actors (laughs).

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)When I went to Cambodia for the first time, Aizawa gave me an aloha shirt as soon as I arrived there and said, "Here, change into this," and told me, "Well, I'm going to shoot a movie" (laughs).

Aizawa.. and I was the star of the show (laughs).

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)In "Babylon 2," Ozawa travels through Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indochina, where he meets a Japanese man named "Kogami," a self-proclaimed revolutionary. He is a self-proclaimed revolutionary named "Kogami," and Ozawa is taken around by him to learn about the history of Indochina. This Kogami, like Ozawa, also appears in "Bangkok Nights," and so everything slides into "Bangkok Nights.

After all, we have been making films for almost 20 years, and there are characters with the same name in various works, and each work is related to the others, or it is like a parallel universe.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. similar to: reincarnation.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)I guess that's what happened!

Aizawa.In the short film "Daughter of Chiang Rai" (2012), which I shot in Thailand before "Bangkok Nights," actor Yota Kawase played the main character, a man named "Kaneshiro," and I had him play the same role in "Bangkok Nights. The two Kaneshiros are slightly related, but not exactly the same. That's how I use them both.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)In the end, while making "Babylon 2" and "Saudade" over the past 10 years, the underlying idea was to eventually make "Bangkok Nights," so I guess they were intertwined at various points.

. a place called "Issan" where local research and director Apichatpong intersect.

-How long and how often did you go to Thailand for the production of "Bangkok Nights"?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)It has been 4 years since I started working on "Bangkok Nights". After "Saudade" had been released to some extent and had left our hands, we finally went to Bangkok. For example, Aizawa and I would stay there for a month, bring back what we gained there, spend about three months in Japan, and then go back to Bangkok for another two months. I lived in Bangkok for a year before the film was cranked.

Aizawa.. After all, I've been over there for more than two years.

-I imagine that in the process of doing research while traveling back and forth between Japan and Thailand, the scenario you had in mind at the time of conception sometimes changed and expanded.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)We had already decided on the title "Bangkok Nights" and that we would shoot in Tanya 10 years earlier. When we got into a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled cab), we would always talk to the driver and ask, "Where are you from? When we got into a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled taxi), we always talked to the driver and asked, "Where are you from? More than 90% of the drivers told us that they were from Isan. When I asked the same question to the girls working in Tanya, almost 80% of them answered "Isan".

Aizawa.In short, we went there to shoot "Bangkok" Nights, but we found out that the labor force in Bangkok is heavily dependent on people from Issan.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). So naturally I was curious and looked it up, and found that Issan is the collective name for 19 provinces in the northeastern region of Thailand , and is a very poor region. . So there is a huge influx of migrant workers into Bangkok. So we decided that we had to visit the Issan region as well, and we began to travel further and further north, and Issan became a major part of our scenario. Another thing is that we are interested in music.

-There is an aspect of "Bangkok Nights" as a music film, isn't there?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). First of all, I tried to absorb everything I could see and hear in the area, starting with the music that came into my ears on its own and listening to various kinds of music. I started with the music that came to my ears on my own and listened to various kinds of music, and I found a few that caught my attention. In other words, I learned that there was a strong genre of music called "Isaan music. So we arrived at Issan through two routes: migrant workers and music.

Aizawa.. And then, the place that director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time in the history of Thai cinema, had always used as the theme of his film was also Issan.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). Yes. So, in a sense, we arrived at Issan intuitively and intuitively, but Director Apichatpong supported our choice. Then we said, "Okay, let's set our sights on Issan.

Aizawa.At this point, I had the basic idea of the film, the story of "Lak," a migrant from Isan who comes to Bangkok and works in Tanya. After that, I went into the area and accumulated a lot of things, and when I had accumulated a certain amount, I said, "Okay, let's start writing the scenario now.

. - Just as Lac and Ozawa traveled from Bangkok to Issan in the film, the scenario of the film itself was also developed during their trip.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)What is unique about Nong Khai is that it is a border town. The Mekong River serves as the border between Thailand and Laos, and Nong Khai is a long province along the Mekong River, with Vientiane, the capital of Laos, just across the river. I knew from my experience with "Babylon 2" that Laos was deeply involved in the Vietnam War, so I decided to set the next stage in Nong Khai, a town on the border with Laos.

Aizawa.. The Issan region borders Laos to the north and east, and Cambodia to the south, and has been the site of constant border disputes. Because of this, the people of Issan are actually close to the Lao people, both culturally and ethnically. Rather, the land was originally Laotian, but was incorporated into Thailand due to border disputes. Therefore, the Isan language spoken in Nong Khai and the northern part of the country, in particular, is very close to the Lao language. Therefore, the Issan language spoken in Nong Khai and the northern part of the country is almost similar to Lao, and was the target of discrimination from the central part of Thailand.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system): The Issan people have been at the mercy of border disputes since ancient times, and the Vietnam War was the tome. . So, I think they had to keep their identity strong. . I feel that this is expressed very well in their music.

Aizawa.. exactly like that. It is obvious in their music that they have their own culture. And it is bright and powerful.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)Naturally, I don't understand the language at first, so I start from the sound, but upon first listen, I thought, "Cool!　It's like old reggae! I thought, "Cool! It has a unique underlying beat, and the sound is similar. Then I looked up the lyrics, and found that many of them were about prostitutes and their sisters and brothers who were being peddled. . there is even a direct title, "I'm gonna buy you back.

There are also songs that harshly criticize social problems in Japan, such as poverty, and sometimes the world situation. On the other hand, there are also some silly lyrics such as, "If I had a kusa, I wouldn't need anything.

Aizawa.. there are lots of ganja songs (laughs). . and also Thai people's hymns and hometown hymns. This kind of Isaan music is called "pua chiwit," which means "song for living" in Thai.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)In short, Issan music is a level music and a protest song. Knowing this, "Bangkok Nights" was inspired by the history, music, and culture of the land. That's how so much music came to be played in Bangkok Nights.

. bring down something in you and create music.

Aizawa.One more thing: There is also a music called "Molam" used in the play, which originated in Laos, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is Issan music. I did a lot of research on mohlam, and found out that Soi48 (Keiichi Utsugi and Shinsuke Takagi, who supervise the reissue series of Thai music in Japan, are also in charge of supervising the music for "Bangkok Nights"). According to them, mohram is not a song, but a storytelling art.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)The word "moo" means "master" and "ram" means "storytelling," so the literal translation of the word "moo ram" is "master storytelling. . In short, they improvise and perform storytelling to the track. It is exactly the same as hip-hop freestyle.

Aizawa.. The origins of moram are believed to lie in the Lao belief in spirits, or shamanism, and such traditional music is widely heard today, fused with pop music and techno. It is not for the maniacs who love ethnic music, but for the general public as dance music that they can listen to and dance to. Knowing this, I thought, "This is an amazing culture.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). However, while the scope of the art is expanding in this way, the traditional and authentic moram is also in danger. Ms. Angkanarn Kunchai, a moram singer who appeared in "Bangkok Nights," is a living national treasure of Thailand, and her moram is passed down from one generation to the next. In other words, it requires a very advanced and complicated technique. In the old days, the best singing child in the village would be taken in by a moram master, who would spend the rest of his life raising that child to be a full-fledged singer, but now there are no more inheritors.

-The scene in the "Bangkok Nights" play where that Mr. Angkanaan performs the molam for the rack is one of the highlights.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)Aizawa mentioned earlier that the origins of the mooram are shamanism, and one of the oldest moorams, the Ram Pee Fah ("Pee Fah" means "spirit of heaven"), was a shaman who healed women who were ill by possessing them with his own spirit. . Isan is a poor place, so there is an unbroken chain of women born into families who have to play the harlot from generation to generation.

In the play "Bangkok Nights," there is a hint that Lack's mother may have once been a prostitute, and the generation below Lack's probably became prostitutes as well. So I asked Mr. Angkanaan only for "a moram that would heal the lives of such women," and we were able to shoot the moram scene you just mentioned.

Aizawa.: That was just amazing!

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)While we were busy preparing for the shoot, Ms. Ann Kanaan was facing the altar with her eyes closed and her hands clasped together. When we finally got ready to shoot, she remained in the same posture, but the moment we clicked the clapper, she turned around and shot the scene. Seeing that, I wondered if this was where Den-chan's freestyle in "Saudade" had its roots.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period: Yield something to yourself?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). yes, yes, yes. In that scene, I wanted to capture something close to the moment of the birth of Moram. I asked Ms. Ann Kanaan to do it, and she responded to my request. The origin of her "ram (narrative)" is shamanism, which is meant to heal people. Den-chan did not put into words the entire background of the character "Takeru" in "Saudade" either. . In that sense, I think that moram and rap are the same. Of course, hip-hop is a music that originated in the U.S., but I had the feeling that its roots were exactly the same.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodI think that music is something that is received and made. I have often wondered recently how a very calm person can make extremely violent music. I often wonder, "Why is such a person making noise music? Like that. So, I think that everyone receives something and makes music by using themselves as a filter.

. derailing from the movie story, to the awareness of "Are you me?

-Did you have any previous exposure to Thai music, Mr. Dagaryu?

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodI've been interested in records for a long time. A label called EM Records in Osaka was reissuing a series of Thai music supervised by Soi48, as I mentioned earlier, and many other strange recordings of Hawaiian religious music, etc. I thought, "This is interesting," and happened to buy some of them personally. And when I actually went to Thailand, I asked a friend of mine who was working in a Thai record shop at the time to give me a lecture on the origins of Thai music. Then I realized that both Tora-san (Aizawa) and the director happened to be listening to the same thing, and the fact that this would be the music for "Bangkok Nights" was a good sign.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)Guidance.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. It's like dots and dots are connected to form a line, which eventually becomes a plane. For example, in reggae music, we often say "guidance" or "navigation," and the music that is playing where you are headed is the key that makes things happen. When you think about it, the shaman I mentioned earlier is a being far removed from our lives today, but in the sense that he or she is playing on a sixth sense, he or she may be close to those of us who are doing music.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). I remembered something interesting that Den-chan said the other day. He said, "Can you imagine a situation where the boundary between yourself and others fades away? I wondered what was behind that kind of feeling, and I thought it must be "wild". In other words, it is a state where the boundary between the "surroundings," such as nature, and the new human consciousness, such as oneself and one's self, is vague, or in other words, it is a state close to "slumber.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodI've only been to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia...

Aizawa.. enough is enough (laughs).

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodI once traveled around Southeast Asia for about a month by myself, and it was just endlessly tiring. I wanted to know why I was so tired, so I went several times after that, including for the filming of "Bangkok Nights," and after thinking about it a lot, I came to the conclusion that it is because the land has a strong power. Plus, the strength of the beliefs of the people who live there also plays a role.

I think that Japan has always had a strong sense of faith in the 8 million gods, but in Southeast Asia, there seems to be a direct connection with the gods, including music.... You mentioned "parallel worlds" earlier, and I was writing a song called "Parallel Worlds" just yesterday.

Tomita, Aizawa.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period: Well, you know, why the barrier between myself and others....

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). good title!

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. let's not talk about it. . maybe it has nothing to do with the movie.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system): No , you should do that.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodThe inspiration for the song was a short story by Fujiko F. Fujio called "Parallel Alumni Meeting". The story is about a reunion where all the people who have lived in different time periods get together at this very moment. I think that the fact that I am here in this world now is probably based on astronomical probability and a perfect balance.

If you look at it on a very large scale, for example, if there is reincarnation, it doesn't really matter whether you go to the future or the past, or who you are reincarnated to, it doesn't really matter. Just like the cast of the movie I was talking about earlier, I think there is a great probability that I will be reincarnated as someone else. That is why I said that there is no boundary between myself and others. It's like, "You're me, aren't you?

Aizawa.. wow.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). After all, shamans and the like, they are trying to bring something down into themselves and become something they are not, and so on.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. I think there is such a thing.

The overwhelming land of Laos , which will change your perspective on life.

-A little bit of casting was mentioned earlier, but another characteristic of the Sorazoku is that they basically do not use professional actors, but rather use trusted friends as actors.

Aizawa.. We are just filming our friends around us. The only exception is Yota Kawase, who is a professional actor.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). really, there's only one Mr. Kawase.

Aizawa.. He's not really a friend, he's more like an empty-nester (laughs).

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)In the filming of "Bangkok Nights," we naturally asked the girls from Tanya to appear, but we also asked people who we thought, "Oh, we want this person to be in the film" while we were walking around the town, in other words, people who became our friends.

-What was the point of casting Mr. Garyu Tenga as the ancient god who appears in Laos?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)If it is a parallel world, it can be taken to mean what happened after Takeru, and if that is the case, it will be a great fun for us to devise how to develop it.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. I was saying some bad lines, wasn't I?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system): "Peachwood, eunow?" . (laughs). I never thought it would be Ichinomiya (Ichinomiya-cho, Higashiyashiro-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture, which was Japan's largest peach-growing village and disappeared in 2004 when the towns and villages were merged. The hip-hop unit "stillichimiya" to which Tagaryu belongs was born as a movement against the merger of towns and villages), or rather, the basis of what stillichimiya has been doing in music, in the mountainous region of Laos, and as a line of dialogue. ( lol ).

Aizawa.. We actually heard that line from stillichimiya himself while we were driving along the Ichinomiya mountain road. We were driving along a mountain road in Ichinomiya.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)MMM of stillichimiya said, "The peach fields around here will disappear someday, and we will return to the jungle of old. Then we will be holed up in there, and we will raise the smoke of rebellion.

Aizawa.Cool: Cool!

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)I'll take that line!　(laughs). (Laughs.) We asked them to say it again, and when we thought about it, we rediscovered what "stillichimiya" had been doing. In "Bangkok Nights," Den-chan's character, Kogami, is asked by Ozawa, "Are you guys communist guerrillas? In "Babylon 2," the man named Kogami is....

Aizawa..: a self-proclaimed revolutionary.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). Since the film was set in Laos, we said, "Okay, it's Den, isn't it? How about the Laos scene, the biggest peak in the middle of the movie? I said, "There's no shortage of ( lol ).

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. that scene was bad, but the rest of Laos was too bad. Laos, you know, no matter how many times you go there, it's always bad.

Aizawa..: Laos is in trouble, really .

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. go there and you'll see, but it's already bad. It will change your perspective on life . The nature is amazing, the trees, the soil, the primitive power is incredible. Like I said before, is that why you get tired?

Aizawa.. Actually, among Southeast Asian countries, Laos seems to be very close to Japan in terms of nature and people. The southern part of Thailand and Cambodia are mostly tropical countries, but as you go north into Laos, the native plants gradually start to resemble those of Japan, and the faces and appearance of the people are very similar to those of the Japanese.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). Geographically, Laos is the only mountainous country in Southeast Asia that does not have a sea. Perhaps it is because Yamanashi Prefecture also has no sea, but I have been to Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, but Laos feels the most comfortable to me. I wonder what this nostalgia I feel for a country I have never been to before. Perhaps somewhere along the way, we have superimposed our own original landscapes on Laos.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodThere's something intense about him, like it's etched into his DNA.

Aizawa.Laos is a place that resonates directly with our nostalgia and saudade. It is a very mysterious country, where music like "moram" is an expression of the country.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. it's a gutsy place, that's for sure. Every time I go there, I get trashed. I get toppled. So, in my mind, Laos is the land of the flying squirrels (laughs).

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). ha ha ha (laughs).

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. it's too dangerous. The first time I went to Laos, I got a fever. I had been working with a group of foreigners and other interesting people I had met there, and we were all thinking, "We're going to Vietnam on the next plane," when I was left alone in a guesthouse in Luang Prabang.

There, I had a fever that didn't go down for about 3-4 days, and I kept having nightmares, or something like that. . Then, when I finally got up and wandered out onto the street, I was like, "Where am I? I was like, "Where am I?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system): At that time, Den-chan skyped me and we talked ( lol ).

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. It was really beautiful. The night market looked so distorted, and the locals were grinning so much, it was, how should I say it....

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system): "You're me"?

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. Yes, that's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened , at that time. . That was a bad time. After that, I went back there for the filming of "Bangkok Nights," which was also quite a shock. (Bangkok Nights" featured appearances by Tagaru and Big Ben of stillichimiya, cinematography by MMM and Mr. Maro's video unit "Studio Ishi," and music and sound by Young G.) ) I didn't expect the story to turn out that way either, and wondered what the cause was.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). karma.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. karma.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)Director Apichatpong usually says "karma" because Thailand is a Buddhist country and its teachings are deeply rooted in Thai life. I ran into him a few times, and I said to him, "Well, it's just a coincidence," but he said with a straight face, "It's karma.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. I feel like karma and déjà vu are the mysteries that need to be solved the most. . seeing déjà vu means you are probably already dead.

Tomita, Aizawa(Laughs) (Laughs)

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. already dead. You have to realize how many loops this is , you have to realize how many loops you have to go through. But I am sure I can only live the same route. It's not good for me to start saying these things (laughs).

. a dangerous place is paradise."

-Well, let's return to Laos for a moment (laughs).

Aizawa.Laos is a country of rich nature and tranquility, and the people living there are gentle and pleasant, but I also feel that they are very proud people. In short, I feel their history of protecting their lives and their will to continue to do so.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)From the Japanese point of view, that is, from the logic of the developed countries, Laos is a developing country, a poor country, and the people are still living a primitive life. But it's not like that. These people have been disciplined and protected themselves so that they don't become a shithole like Japan is today.

Aizawa.. Simply put, the idea of respecting nature is deeply rooted in our culture. . That's why the food is so delicious. Vegetables are fresh and not seasoned unnecessarily. It is quite similar to Japan in that respect.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). We are ultimately part of nature because we are living creatures, and we are part of a larger cycle. In other words, we are part of a larger cycle, and as Den said earlier, "you are me," and the boundary between oneself and others is almost nonexistent from the beginning.

Aizawa.I think people will reaffirm the feeling of living in such a natural environment, or perhaps they will take it for granted. So, we don't have to say things like "ecology" or "LOHAS" anymore.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). I thought it would be better to have nature on my side. As to why we went to Laos in the first place, it was because Tora-chan's (Aizawa) sense of smell kicked in at a certain stage, and he said, "I think Laos is the place for me. He said, "I think Laos is the place for me.

At that time, I was still in the aftermath of the Cambodia trip, so I was reluctant to go with them, thinking, "Oh, Laos is in the north, isn't it? Let me soak in this tropical atmosphere a little more," and I reluctantly went with them!　It was Laos! ." I was instantly like, "Oh, it's Laos!

Aizawa.. too much to make sense (laughs).

-When you said, "I think it's Laos," was it a gut feeling?

Aizawa.Well, to tell the truth, I wasn't sure myself, but there was one reason.... I know it's a silly reason, but I traveled around a lot, and I had a few moments when I thought, "This is really not good. When I think about it, all of those moments happened in Laos.

Tomita, Dagaryu. ha ha ha ha (laughs).

-But even in the play "Bangkok Nights," there was a line like, "A dangerous place is a paradise.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)That's right!

Aizawa.I have always wondered why the Hmong people, who fought in the Vietnam War, were able to fight their way out of the war against the U.S. I have always wondered why they were able to fight their way out of the war against the U.S. They fought in the Vietnam War, and I have always wondered why they were able to fight through the war against the United States. There is a lot of talk about communism, but in fact, I think that communism was not important to them.

In other words, they were just protecting their land, and I feel that this has not changed since the colonial period. . That kind of toughness is not something that is often shown.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). As I told Tora-chan before, the remaining communist or socialist countries in the world today are all Asian countries, except for Cuba. That is, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Cambodia was also like that for a while under the Pol Pot regime. So why did so much communism remain in Asia? Of course, that's not exactly communism in the strictest sense of the word.

Aizawa.. it's an Asian-style communism.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). in short, it was easy for communism to merge with Asianness. . As a result, it functioned not as an ideology, but as an instrument in the struggle for independence. That struggle was born out of a desire to protect something, so what were they trying to protect?　They came to the conclusion, "They were trying to protect paradise.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period: Ohhhh...

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). they've kept it and it's still there. So, just before "Bangkok Nights" was cranked, when we were excited about "Laos! Haruki Murakami asked us, "What in the world is in Laos? (laughs).

Aizawa, Dagaryu. wahaha (laughs).

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system): Well, the book was a travelogue about how you went to Laos and were healed ( lol ). So, Tiger-chan wrote somewhere the other day, didn't you?　What was in Laos?

Aizawa.: "There was music," he wrote of Morham.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)But, to put it bluntly, "What's in Laos?" . The reason why people say "What's in Laos?" is because the U.S. has been hiding the history of the secret war it waged against Laos. In other words, Laos was actually the country most heavily bombed by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. . The largest amount of bombs in the history of human wars were dropped on Laos. . twice as much as the bombs dropped by the Allied Forces on Nazi Germany.

Aizawa.The main reason for this was that a supply route was drawn into Laos for the North Vietnamese military to send aid supplies to the Viet Cong in the South, and U.S. aircraft that had finished bombing the North dropped all their surplus bombs into Laos to save fuel for the return trip home.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system)The U.S. kept it a secret for so long that the country of Laos remained a mystery to the rest of the world and came to be known as "the world's most secretive place.

-What do you think is interesting about Sorazoku from your point of view?

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodWhen a camera is placed at a certain point, I think everyone, including the director, cameraman, and actors, have some idea of the picture that will be taken there. From the point of view of the person being filmed, it is like, "This is probably what they want to film. However, it is interesting to see how they are able to capture something that goes beyond such assumptions. So when you see it on the monitor, you think, "What the heck is this? Why did it turn out like this? I think that kind of incomprehension is the most appealing aspect of the work.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). I don't really understand it (laughs).

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodThe film was made on the spot. So it is realistic, realistic, but super fictional, which is the worst part.

Aizawa.. great summary.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. I think the line between fiction and non-fiction is blurred, and that's where the fantastical comes in.

-When I hear that, I'm tempted to watch the making of the film as well.

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). Actually, we are going to make the making of the film. We tried crowdfunding for the first time for the production of "Bangkok Nights," and we wanted to make an attractive return for our donors. One of them is a 10-hour documentary on 5 DVDs. However, this 10-hour version is only for those who supported us through crowdfunding, so it cannot be shown or sold, but we are planning to re-edit it to around 2 hours and make a theatrical version at some point.

Aizawa.: Is the 10-hour version the full ugliness of everyone else?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system): Yaahhh ( lol ). already, like Den-chan when we went to Laos, he's a total shaman (laughs).

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo periodWhat?　Is there any footage left from that time?

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system): Well, I guess Den and all of us were all toasted by Laos.

method of Japanese calligraphy based on the gyousho style popular in the Edo period. that means it's finished (laughs).

rice field in the charge of a nominal holder (ritsuryo system). there is no more boundary between you and me (laughs).