Copyright Variety
Acclaimed Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang is back at the Tokyo International Film Festival presenting his latest film “Morte Cucina.” But it was his storied collaboration with Japanese actors that took centerstage at a masterclass with “Lost Land” director Fujimoto Akio. The counterpoint focus of their work, Ratanaruang’s frequent use of Japanese talent and Fujimoto’s focus on Southeast Asian subjects was a central theme of the discussion. Ratanaruang reminisced about working with legendary Japanese filmmaker Miike Takashi on his 2003 film “Last Life in the Universe,” the latter making a cameo as a yakuza boss. Miike took the reins for his own character’s look and support cast. “He said he knew who to cast as his henchmen. One was his screenwriter, and the other was an actor that he used all the time. He said he’s going to design all the costumes for all three of them, because he knew how Yakuza really dressed like,” recounted Pen-ek. According to Ratanaruang, Miike even insisted on a specific hairstyle, the Punch Pama, a tight cropped perm popular amongst underworld elements in the 1970s. “So he did everything for us. He did casting for us. He designed the costumes and when we had to film in Osaka for a week, he got all the [underworld] permissions for us because they all really admired him,” Ratanaruang said. Ratanaruang shared another anecdote from Miike about the finished product. “He’s a really good director but a really terrible actor. He really sticks out. He doesn’t blend in,” said the Thai auteur. “He said that himself, you know, when he saw ‘Last Life In The Universe,’ he said ‘Pen-Ek, you made such a beautiful film… the only thing that was bad in it is me.’” A key point of overlap in the conversation between Fujimoto and Ratanaruang was how their casting process tended to impact the screenplay. “The most fearful thing, the most frightening thing about filmmaking is when people lose interest after 20 minutes into the film or they fall asleep. You have to fight against losing the audience, against them losing interest,” said Ratanaruang. “So what’s on the screen has to be really interesting. And I think most of the time the actors are on the screen. You cast someone you think the audience can watch for two hours without losing interest. You go for those,” he added. “Someone who maybe doesn’t speak well, who can’t act at all, but just the presence is so great that you have to keep watching. And they may not fit exactly what you wrote in the script. So you change the script to fit them,” he said. In a similar vein, Japanese director Fujimoto detailed the challenging and delicate process of casting non-professional Rohingya actors for his film “Lost Land,” which focuses on the refugee experience in Myanmar. “Originally in the screenplay, it was about two 14-year-old brothers. But as I was [scouting Rohingya schools] I saw this little boy, four years old at the time, and I felt like this boy is so good and he might lead the movie, and I went to his home, and he had an older sister and I thought ‘Wow, the sister is good, too’ So then let’s, let’s rewrite the screenplay,” said Fujimoto. Due to the real-life dangers the refugees face, he declined to reveal specifics about where he found his cast or the filming locations, stating, “I cannot really tell you where I found them, because we can’t let people know where they live.” Fujimoto’s main actors, a brother and sister, are Rohingya and face immense challenges to their freedom. The filmmaker underscored their stateless reality when explaining why they could not travel to attend film festivals: “They don’t, they’re stateless. They don’t have passports, so basically, they can’t go out of wherever they’re living right now.”
