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Macaroni Empitsu Hattori turns 30. “I want to express myself in a way that excites me”

2023.7.14

#MOVIE

Based on a short story by Mieko Kawakami, art director/graphic designer Tetsuya Chihara directs his first film, “Ice Cream Fever,” which will be released on July 14. In addition to stars Riho Yoshioka and Serina Mottola, musicians such as Shiba of Wednesday’s Campanella and Kayoko Yoshizawa, who sings the film’s theme song, also appear in the film, with Hatori playing one of the key characters in the story.

Although he has appeared in music videos for Macaroni Empitsu, this is the first time he has appeared in a film. While he has been rolling along as a rock band for more than 10 years, Hattori, who just celebrated his 30th birthday on June 29, is now looking forward to what kind of expression he is going to pursue as an individual. We interviewed him about the behind-the-scenes of the photo shoot, in which he says he had a hard time in an environment different from that of his main battlefield, live performances, and about his current interests and expressions outside of music.

Lily Franky’s advice that pushed Hattori. Would you be more comfortable if you were not yourself?

-This was your first time to act in a film. How interested were you in acting in the first place?

Hattori: I had a feeling that I wanted to try it, regardless of whether I could do it or not. When I had an interview with Lily Franky for a series of articles in a magazine (“MG”), he told me, “I think you will eventually be asked to be an actor, so you should jump in when that happens.

Trailer for the short movie “Aspiration,” produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the formation of Macaroni Pencil. Lily Franky plays the role of Hatori’s father.

Hatori: The way Lily said that had a …… mysterious power that I could easily accept. I had always liked her very much, and for some reason I thought at the time, “If that’s what Lily-san said, then there must be no doubt about it. So when I heard about this project, I thought, “Let’s jump in.

-Lily, you are indeed like a prophecy (laughs).

Hattori: But when I think back, a friend of my father’s owned a theater company, and I vividly remember going to see plays when I was little. The teacher at the preschool I went to also did theater, and I was very familiar with “acting,” so perhaps I had an interest in it from an early age.

Hatori
formed “Macaroni Empitsu” in 2012. He is the main songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in the band. His emotional voice, catchy melodies, and unique world of lyrics have made him popular among people of all ages, and he has sung theme songs for numerous commercials, movies, and TV dramas. He won the Best New Artist Award at the “Japan Record Awards,” and the following year he won the Best Picture Award for the second year in a row! In addition to his band activities, he has participated as a narrator in NHK’s program “Words of the Great Archived by NHK” and published his first lyrics collection “Kotoba no Tane” (Seeds of Words), which has become a topic of conversation.

-I think it’s a little different from acting, but in a sense, you have been living a “life of becoming”. In another interview, he told us that he used to play as an anime character when he was a child. I thought there might be a connection between those qualities and the job of “acting.

Hattori: This may sound like another quote from Lily-san, but she once said something like, “It’s easier to be myself if I’m not myself. She said that it was more difficult when she was in writing mode, where she had to write about herself, and that it was easier when she was in acting mode, where she was playing someone other than herself. When you write a novel or an essay, you can’t lie and you have to reveal yourself.

I understand that feeling very well, and in my case, it is simply more enjoyable and exciting to aspire to something rather than to be myself. I think everyone’s life is a search for what they are, but if you are forbidden to admire or imitate someone else and continue searching for yourself, I think it would be very painful.

Hattori: It would be more enjoyable and less stressful for me if I had an object that I wanted to be like and spent time wondering how I could be like it or how I could get close to it. I think that may be what Lily means when she says, “It’s easier not to be myself.

I guess you could say that being an actor is a profession where you find out who you are by becoming someone you are not.

Hattori: That may be so. You meet a new you when you play the role of someone who is not you. Well, for a very successful actor, he/she may not even have a chance to think about “Who am I? It must be very difficult for them, though. It would be a misnomer to say that it is …… “easy” to always be playing someone else or becoming something other than yourself, but I think that’s where the fun is.

The difficulty of acting is completely different from that of usual live performances. I thought to myself, “My voice is so tiny.

-What were your impressions of the actual filming?

Hattori: It was difficult. The first scene I shot with Riho Yoshioka’s character Natsumi was still good. I was nervous because I knew Riho Yoshioka was there, but I could speak at a volume appropriate for that person, and I was able to act on the premise that it was a conversation.

Trailer for “Ice Cream Fever. Music is the theme song “Ice Candy” sung by Kayoko Yoshizawa.

Hattori: But the next scene is the one where he makes a phone call while unpacking, and he is talking to himself. He is talking to himself. It was a difficult scene for an amateur to act without a partner. From the audience’s point of view, it looks like there is only one person in the room, but there are many staff members around the camera, silently looking at us. It was very embarrassing (laughs).

(Laughs.) – Is it totally different from singing in front of a lot of people at a live concert?

Hattori: It is different. The person I am when I am performing live or doing something I am good at is totally different from the person I am when I am doing something I am not confident in, such as acting. I was embarrassed by how small I sounded, and I thought to myself, “My voice is so tiny!

(laughs) Even though I usually sing with such a loud voice (laughs).

Hattori: I didn’t know where to start. But the microphone was amazing. I think the microphone must have been used to poke me during editing, but when I looked at the finished product, my voice came out perfectly. I was like, “Is this coming through? I wasn’t sure if my voice was coming out at all.

-How was the scene with Mr. Yoshioka?

Hattori: It was a normal conversation scene with Mr. Yoshioka, but I didn’t want to be too much like my normal self. I didn’t want to sound too much like my usual self. The role wasn’t about being flirtatious, but rather about having an intellectual look and a quiet demeanor, so I didn’t want to show too much of my usual self, so I had to think about how to use language while acting.

I thought it would be difficult to act the role while thinking about the right words to use.

Hattori: I am a normal person, or rather, I am a normal person, but I am a little bit plain. Well, my private self is also normal or very suspicious (laughs), so it’s fine to be just as I am, but the most difficult thing is probably to be plain, even at …….

The more eccentric you are, the more likely you are to be able to swing out of it. Once you have done this kind of work, you start to think, “Now I want to try this kind of work,” and it would be interesting to play more outlandish, character-driven roles.

-Is there a role you would like to play already?

Hattori: I’d like to play the role of a …… rascal (laughs). I would like to play someone who is very vague but messed up. Well, even if I had such an opportunity, I would prefer not to have too many people around during the filming. I’d like them to use hidden cameras or fixed-point cameras (laughs).

(laughs). – That kind of concept might be good for a documentary-like style, though (laughs).

Hattori: I think it’s amazing that actors can do bed scenes while being watched. I think, “How could they do this scene so naturally? I also think of Toshiyuki Nishida’s “Tsuribaka nisshi” (Fishing Fool’s Journal). It looks super natural.

-Of course, professional actors are amazing, aren’t they?

Hattori: When I saw how it turned out this time, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be so bad that I couldn’t even look at it, but the editing was very good and the texture of the images was very stylish, so I thought, “It’s okay, I can see it. When I had an interview with Mr. Yoshioka for “MG,” he told me, “My manager was raving about your performance and said it was very good,” which made me say …… “Manager, huh?

(Laughs) – You really wanted to be praised by Mr. Yoshioka himself (laughs).

Hattori: But I was very happy. It is really nice to have even one person say something like that to me.

Does Hattroi not a man of words but a man of vision? I always assemble my arrangements visually. If that work is taken away from me, it’s like taking away more than half of what makes it worthwhile.

-What was particularly impressive about the finished film itself?

Hattori: (Director) Mr. Chihara said, “This is not a movie. He is an art director and designer, so it was more like art, and I thought the angle of view in all the cuts was very interesting. Even in scenes that would normally be easier to see if they were pulled back a bit more, you would say, “I guess they wanted to show the strong colors even if it meant eliminating the ease of viewing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyLPLAsG3pE
The second trailer for “Ice Cream Fever. The music is the ending theme sung by Kenji Ozawa, “Haru ni shite kimi wo motomete.

-Is there a scene that left a particularly strong impression on you?

Hattori: I liked the scene in the public bath. The atmosphere there was a bit different, and the location was a bit strange. The location was also a bit disconcerting. While the whole scene was stylish and fashionable, it was interesting to see a scene that suddenly became a commoner’s scene.

I also wanted to ask you about your visual and visual sensibility. The lyrics of “Macaroni Pencil” are highly acclaimed, and I think many people think of Mr. Hatori as a “wordsmith,” but after interviewing him so far, I find it interesting that he is surprisingly unaware of this. I heard that you had originally intended to become a manga artist alongside your music career, and that you have had more exposure to movies and animation than to printed matter.

Hattori: I think I see everything in terms of images. People who are not good at drawing draw flat things, but I have been drawing three-dimensional things since I was a child, and I remember my father being impressed by that.

I remember my father being impressed by my drawing. I am the main arranger for Macaroni Pencil, and I have never asked anyone else to arrange the band’s music. If this work were taken away from me, it would be like taking away more than half of what makes it worthwhile. For me, arranging has replaced drawing. The arrangements are always assembled visually.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9fhV2Ikoxg
Music video for “Wave of Love” by Macaroni Pencil

-Do you have an abstract image for each song, or do you have a more specific image in mind, such as a DTM screen, or a picture of a band playing together?

Hattori: That’s all of them already. As you say, even when I am not recording at home, I can see the DTM screen in my mind. The tempo numbers, track waveforms, and grid lines are always floating in my mind, even when I’m arranging in the studio.

There are moments when I imagine playing live, and most often at ……, I have an image of “that feeling of that song by that band. The moment I imagine it, I can already see the finished product, and then I think, “How can I bring it to that point with these instruments in the studio?

Hattori: But on the way to that point, something unintentional happens. The batteries in the effector were about to run out, and the sound became thin. But this thin sound is surprisingly good, so I enjoy going on to different arrangements, such as, “Put this note in the intro and play it like this. And so the recording sessions became longer and longer (laughs).

(Laughs). But it is very visual, isn’t it?

Hattori: It was the same when I was drawing. I had a vague idea of what I wanted, but as I drew, I kept thinking, “What is this? I would start thinking, “What’s this? But that “What is this? is what makes the expression enjoyable for me. Singing and writing lyrics are not expressions that entertain me. If the arrow only pointed outward, it would be hard for me. I feel that only the hard part of making things will grow and grow and grow. Instead, I think that arranging songs and drawing pictures is something that “I also enjoy”.

I want to be a “hot and bothered” 30-something, different from Tamio Okuda, whom I admire. I want to try all kinds of expression as long as it excites me.

-As you tried your hand at acting this time, are you interested in drawing manga or illustrations, producing videos, or other forms of visual expression in the future?

Hattori: I would like to be asked to do so. I want to be given crazy deadlines (laughs). If someone says, “Here is the deadline,” I will do it. It’s easier that way. Is there anything you want to do? I would be like, “No, I’m ……,” but if someone says, “Please do it,” like in this case, I would be like, “If you say so. That’s why it’s easier for me to do the work I’m asked to do.

-Do you prefer visual work to print work? What if you were asked to write a novel or an essay?

Hattori: I’m not sure about novels. I think I would give up halfway through. If it were a short story, I think I could still give it a try.

-As I mentioned to Lily-san at the beginning, with printed work, you have to face yourself logically, but with visual expression, you have to ask yourself, “What will happen? and you can entertain yourself as well. Maybe that’s the difference.

Hattori: For the anniversary book that came out this year (“Macaroni Pencil 10th Anniversary Book – Macaroni Kuroni Kuru”), I was asked to draw a four-panel picture, and I thought I would try it for the first time in a long time. So, I am more confident in drawing pictures and other visual things.

-Do you have any thoughts on what you would like to do in your 30s outside of music?

Hattori: Well, …… I have always admired Tamio Okuda, and he has released two albums, “29” and “30”. I think that becoming a solo artist was the beginning of a second life as a musician for Tamio, and now I am at the same age as him.

In Tamio’s case, he became looser and looser, and he established it, or rather, he expanded it as his universe. That looseness is Tamio’s aesthetic, and he started to develop it around the time of “29” and “30. But I can’t imitate him, so I’d like to become …… hotter and hotter at this same milestone.

-You said that you are going to take a different path here.

Hattori: I recently realized that I am more suited to the hot and bothered side, and I think the reason why I admired Tamio-san was because he was different from me.

People are not looking for someone who looks like them, but are attracted to something different. At first, I misunderstood this, and thought that I wanted to be close to Tamio in terms of personality, but I realized that this was not the case in the first place. I think I am suited to becoming more and more hot and bothered. I don’t want the young people to hate me (laughs).

-I don’t want to be called an old man (laughs).

Hattori: I think it is better to be more honest. I don’t want to brush up on my eccentricity (laughs). I’m a grandma’s boy, and I think my eccentricity comes from my grandma, and that’s one of the things I like about myself. I hear and feel people around me say that people lose their passion as they get older, so I try not to let that happen.

In that sense, it might be a good idea to increase your output, not only in music but also in acting and other things as well.

Hattori: I think it is a good idea. In this day and age, I don’t think it is the time for musicians to dabble in all kinds of things and for fans to complain about it, since everyone is living that way. I think it’s okay to experiment with various things, and to think about what you like to do when you are doing something, not just one thing. I feel strongly that “you don’t have to think of yourself only as the person you are when you are doing this.

I love myself when I am doing music, but there may be other moments when I am doing other things that I love even more, and I think it would be a loss not to try them out. If there is an environment in which I can do that, I think I should do it, and if it makes even one person other than myself happy, then I want to do it. However, as a precondition, I definitely want to do something that I enjoy. If it is an expression that excites me, I would love to do it.

『アイスクリームフィーバー』

Friday, July 14, 2023 in theaters nationwide
Director: Tetsuya Chihara
Original story: “Ice Cream Fever” by Mieko Kawakami (“Ai no Yume toka” Kodansha Bunko)
Theme Song: “Ice Candy” by Kayoko Yoshizawa
Screenplay: Tadashi Shimizu
Music: Tomoyuki Tanaka
Cast: Riho Yoshioka
Serina Motola Shiba (Wednesday no Campanella)
Yumi Adachi Kotona Minami Junpei Goto (Jarujaru) Hatori (Macaroni Pencil) Comai
Iku Arai Momo (Charan po lantern) Marina Fujiwara Natsu Summer
MEGUMI Hairi Katagiri / Marika Matsumoto
https://icecreamfever-movie.com/

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