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Unraveling the Complexity of Human Relationships with Director Rikya Imaizumi

2023.10.12

#MOVIE

“Undercurrent,” the newest film from director Rikiya Imaizumi, released on October 6, is a live-action rendition of Tetsuya Toyoda’s 2005 manga of the same name. It features a star-studded cast including Yoko Maki, alongside Arata Iura, Eita Nagayama, Lily Franky, and more renowned actors.

Kanae manages a public bathhouse on her own after her husband Satoru vanishes. Things take an intriguing turn when a mysterious figure named Hori enters the scene. As the characters conceal their true emotions in this tense environment, the women face a pivotal decision. The movie delves into the conflicts that shape Imaizumi’s groundbreaking creation.

The Film’s Mood was Set by the Tug-of-War Balance between Yoko Maki and Imaizumi

– What kind of communication did you have with Tetsuya Toyoda, the author of the original story, when you started working on this film?

Imaizumi: When I first met Mr. Toyoda, I wrote him a letter of sorts. I have my own film called “Sayonara to Boring Days” (2017), and like Hori in “Undercurrent,” it is about the loss of someone who was close to me and visiting his hometown.

Rikiya Imaizumi
Born in 1981 in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Film director, Imaizumi made his commercial film debut in 2010 with “Tama no Eiga. He has since released a series of high-profile films, including “Sad Tea” (2014), “Sayonara to Boring Days” (2017), “What’s Love” (2019), “On the Town” (2021), and “Chihiro-san” (2023). His latest film “Undercurrent” will be released on October 6, 2023.

– This is your seventh feature film. Set in Tokyo and the director’s hometown of Fukushima five years after the disaster, it is an ensemble piece that depicts various aspects related to filmmaking and views on life and death.

Imaizumi: I can’t really verbalize my reasons, but I understand the feeling of “I want to meet people who knew my loved ones when they were alive. I wrote a letter about what I thought about that and gave it to him.

– In the past, you have made films in which the motif of “passing each other by” has been included. I think one of the characteristics of his works is the “ridiculousness” in them, but I think there was a tingling sensation in this work that did not reassure the audience. Was this something you were consciously aware of?

Imaizumi: It was not conscious. It is true that the weight of laughter was lower than usual, but I think that was largely due to the performance of the acting department. It is a story about people who have been through serious trauma, so the actor’s club played it sensitively.

Trailer for “Undercurrent”
Synopsis: Kanae (Yoko Maki) has taken over the family bathhouse business and lives happily with her husband, Satoru (Eita Nagayama). One day, however, Satoru suddenly disappears. Kanae is at a loss but reopens the bathhouse when a mysterious man named Hori (Arata Iura) appears and offers her a live-in job. Kanae and a suspicious detective Yamazaki (Lily Franky) search for Satoru’s whereabouts and find her way back to a peaceful life with Hori in a strange communal living arrangement.

– You had a theme that connects to your previous work “Chihiro-san” (2023) in the sense that you are dealing with a trauma from the past.

Imaizumi: If I talk about the creative process, “Undercurrent” and “Chihiro-san” were actually made at the same time. So I think they were both influenced by each other to a great extent.

– How did you approach and direct the traumatic motif of the “past”?

Imaizumi: It was very difficult to find the right temperature. I talked a lot with Maki-san, and Kanae (Yoko Maki) is in such a state of shock that she has forgotten her past, which she can never forget. I envisioned her as “completely forgotten” in her daily life, and Ms. Maki played the role with a similar nuance, but with the sense that “even so, there is no way she can forget.

From left, Kanae (Yoko Maki), Hori (Arata Iura) ©Tetsuya Toyoda / Kodansha ©2023 “Undercurrent” Production Committee

– So, the subtle nuances of the characters’ performances change.

Imaizumi: Yes, it does. Mr. Maki played the role with a lot of tension from his past trauma. On the other hand, I was unconsciously trying to loosen the tension, as I always do in my works. That kind of “tugging at each other’s strings” in a positive sense may have created the tingling atmosphere of this work. Our goals are the same, though. It’s more like a difference in methods and tastes. But there were many things that came about thanks to Mr. Maki.

Balancing Cinematic Quality with Realism in Filmmaking

– I have the impression that you have made a lot of modifications for the movie, while also incorporating the essence of the original work. What scenes did you want to include in the script?

Imaizumi: There were scenes that I wasn’t sure whether to include or leave out. For example, in the first half of the film, there is a scene in which Kanae and Hori (the actress) have a conversation about “Have you ever wanted to die? (Have you ever wanted to die?) in the first half of the film. I wondered if two people who have only just started living together would talk about such things face-to-face. It is difficult to portray them as people who do not have a general sense of distance from others.

– That scene was impressive. It was a dramatic dialogue that I have not seen in any of the director’s previous works, and I felt it was unexpected in its depiction of a situation that is disconnected from everyday life.

Imaizumi: I knew it.

– You knew it?

Imaizumi: I don’t strictly adhere to the reality line, but I don’t usually use dialogue or descriptions that are far removed from everyday life in my films. Unusual scenes are very typical of movies, aren’t they? So I understand the temptation to do so, but I don’t want to run away from it. It will become a film that already exists.

I kept that in mind, but this time I relied on the original story and shot with care. I don’t think I would have shot the scene where Kanae sinks into the water, or the fantastical shot where she dreams about past events.

Undercurrent” scene ©Tetsuya Toyoda / Kodansha ©2023 “Undercurrent” Production Committee

– I have the impression that the director’s work is therefore tied to my own life. But there are also many films that showcase illusions and spectacular scenes, aren’t there?

Imaizumi: There are many. However, I was conflicted about doing that for my film. I needed to find a balance that I had never found before, so when I was torn, I trusted the original work. Also, I feel that Haruomi Hosono’s music connected the everyday and extraordinary aspects of the film.

Also, I think I was able to capture the core of a human being, or rather, a number of painful and strong facial expressions that could never be captured in a superficial performance, and this was greatly helped by the performance of the acting department. At the same time, I had to pay attention to the “intensity” of the images.

– What do you mean by the “strength” of the images?

Imaizumi: I was concerned that the strength of the words and actions would be greater than in the manga because they were performed by real people. It could make certain lines sound as if they are the “correct” answers. There is a possibility that the audience will perceive the performance with an intensity beyond the creator’s imagination.

I felt this way with “Chihiro-san” as well. Before the film was screened, people who saw the trailer criticized the film, saying that it depicted a male director and a former sex worker as a person who provides services to men. They said, “How can you take a homeless man home and wash him?

Trailer for “Chihiro-san”

Imaizumi: I wondered whether I should include the scene that was criticized. I could understand the criticism, and I felt that the depiction was problematic from the homeless person’s point of view. On the contrary, I thought that if I were a homeless person, I would definitely not like it. I would not want to be washed without permission. I thought that would be a form of assault, and I wasn’t sure whether to remove that scene or not. But Chihiro is not a normal person. She doesn’t think like me. When I imagined Chihiro’s out-of-this-world personality, I thought that the scene would help convey the character of Chihiro, so I made the decision to include it.

If I did not have such standards, I would have ended up with a film in which all the characters are what I consider to be righteous people. That is why I am careful about which point of view I should write the script from. I want to say out loud that not every line of dialogue reflects the director’s ideology (laughs).

– Back to “Undercurrent,” the original story is more conversational. Did you reduce the dialogue to highlight the “character’s inability to express his true feelings”?

Imaizumi: There is a big practical problem: putting all the dialogue in the film would be too long. I talked with Kaori Sawai, the scriptwriter, many times and made a lot of choices. In the final scene between Kanae and Satoru (Eita Nagayama), we discussed it with the actors, and we changed back some lines and added some words that were not in the original story.

From left, Kanae and Satoru (Eita Nagayama) ©Tetsuya Toyoda/Kodansha ©2023 “Undercurrent” Production Committee

– Why did you add these words?

Imaizumi: Because I thought that if I didn’t say this much, they wouldn’t understand. It was an important scene for Satoru and Kanae, so I carefully added and subtracted one line of dialogue to close the distance between them.

Eita was also very sensitive in his performance, paying attention to how much he looked into Kanae’s eyes, and I was very impressed as I looked into the camera. Maki also said during an interview leading up to the release of the film, “Eita was amazing in this scene.

The Value of Acknowledging the Unfathomable in Personal and Global Relations

– What this film made me think about is that, although the basic premise is that people cannot understand each other, they still wish to understand each other and are troubled by the “still” part of that desire. The play has a line “What does it mean to understand someone? I would like to ask the director’s opinion on this question.

Imaizumi: It is the same for me. It is difficult to completely understand other people. I don’t think I can even understand myself. Depending on the person I confront, I may be respected or taken lightly, and I cannot define “me. When even I don’t understand myself, it is only natural that I don’t understand others.

On top of that, I thought that this film may have been a film that considered a lot of “still” parts, after hearing your current impressions. Every interaction is trivial, but it depicts an “attitude of trying to know the other person.

– What do you think about the behavior of other people that you don’t understand?

Imaizumi: I am the type of person who, even if someone says or does something that is completely different from what I think, I don’t reject it outright and say, “That’s different,” but rather I accept it and say, “There is another way of thinking. I want to accept it. I don’t mean that I accept everything, but I accept it and then discuss it.

I think that such “discussion after acknowledging the existence of incomprehensible entities” is important not only between individuals, but also between two regions with different cultures, even in the case of wars between countries.

– I thought that “family” is especially difficult to understand and to talk about one’s true feelings, like Kanae and Satoru. My own theory is that “if we always clashed with each other about our true feelings, we wouldn’t be able to live together.

Imaizumi: I understand that opinion, though (laughs). I think the important thing in a family is not to be tied down. I myself have no memories of being tied down by my parents, and I am very grateful for that.

Even family members like different things and think differently. For example, as a parent, I worry about my child watching YouTube all the time. I really don’t want them to watch YouTubers with bad mouths or anything like that (laughs). But everyone likes different things, so as long as they keep to a minimum promise, I try not to restrict them.

I think there is always something to learn from everything. It’s like playing NES when we were kids. We were told, “If you play it all the time, you will become an idiot. It’s the same thing. So I try not to easily deny what they are enjoying, even if I don’t think it’s interesting.

– Do you think the same way when you are faced with a major choice, such as your career path?

Imaizumi: I think that parents should not ignore their children’s wishes and guide them in their career paths or love lives. Of course, they want to guide their children because they are important to them, and they have a responsibility to nurture them, but whether the “good life” you think is a good life for them is a different matter. Even when dealing with children, I want to be open to their opinions.

My wife and I are on equal footing, so we share our opinions with each other.

– Do you ever feel afraid to tell your wife how you really feel?

Imaizumi: I am not afraid because she is the only person with whom I can talk about my true feelings. But we fight a lot. It can’t be helped (laughs). (laughs) Recently, I had a headache because I couldn’t convey my feelings to the other person properly.

– What kind of topics do you disagree about?

Imaizumi: I myself am not particular about anything except about my creative work, so there is not much disagreement in my daily life. I remember when I first got married, I was asked every day, “Do you want to have dinner? I hated being asked that question every day when I first got married.

I was used to the freedom of living alone, and since we started living together when we got married without living together, I thought, “I don’t know what I’m going to do at night when it’s daytime. The person I was talking to was always trying to be helpful, but it was hard for me.

– I can understand both sides of the argument, so it is difficult.

Imaizumi: I know it is an extravagant statement. It is not so cramped as to be “constrained,” but I felt that my life was very restricted.

– You mentioned that you were not tied down by your parents, but I imagine that they did not have a relationship that pushed you away as much as they left you alone. How did you develop a relationship of mutual trust?

Imaizumi: They were strict in some ways, but they respected my opinions. For example, when I told him that I wanted to work in film in the future, he was very understanding and did not oppose me.

I later found out that my father wanted to be a writer, but his parents were against it. His bookshelf was filled with books on novels and scenario writing, and I am sure he really wanted to be a writer. However, his grandfather did not approve, saying, “It is not something that the eldest son in the countryside should do. Perhaps he looked back on that experience as a lesson to me, but he was very supportive of me.

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