After winning in Sitges the prize for the best animated feature film with his fifth film, Your name. (2016), the Japanese Makoto Shinkai (Koumi, 1973) became the great phenomenon of anime, continuing his love story with Spanish viewers when he presented in San Sebastián his next film, The time with you (2019). His most ambitious proposal to date, Suzume, the story of an orphan who finds doors in abandoned places that are the corridor to parallel worlds, hits the Spanish billboards this week after having its international presentation at the Berlin Film Festival. Who is considered by many to be Hayao Miyazaki's successor in Japanese animation spoke exclusively via video conference with La Vanguardia during a recent visit to Mexico City.
Does it surprise you that this story, which is very Japanese, is so well received internationally?
The truth is that I am quite surprised by the positive international reaction that Suzume is having. Although to make this film I thought of countries where natural disasters occur like Japan, it's amazing that it also hit hard in places where there are no such disasters and I'm very pleased with that.
When you started writing the script, was it clear to you that the teenage Suzume would have to deal with a huge trauma in this story?
Yes, because Suzume was thought of as an orphan from a huge catastrophe that happened in Japan. She has a different perspective than others because she lived through tragic experiences where she lost many loved ones and people around her that she knew. This is key, it was the starting point of everything.
This movie is about making friends with the inevitable…
Is it like that. Suzume tackles the subject of how we deal with the inevitable. In Japan, we never know when a city will completely disappear due to an earthquake, but despite having to struggle with these feelings every day, knowing that an inevitable seismic catastrophe will come one day, we have to find a hope that allows us to carry on with our lives and this concept was what gave rise to this film.
His inspiration for this film was earthquakes, but where does the fascination with doors and cats come from?
Doors fascinate me because for me they are a symbol of everyday life and the latter is something that earthquakes disrupt, so everyday life is affected by natural disasters. Regarding cats, I feel that they represent a natural evolution and that they also have a special character that embodies the capricious side that the gods have, so I think that it is the animal that symbolizes these issues in a perfect way and that is why their presence is very strong in this movie.
What other things influenced the creation of Suzume?
When I was a child I lived in a small town that was located in the middle of the mountains and I always wondered what was beyond, what innovative events or happenings were happening and how many unknown people existed. This desire to discover new things and to be able to be in a place where unexpected encounters could take place stayed with me and came to light in this film. I think that all these questions from my childhood have crept into Suzume, as in some way also into the rest of my works.
In the film, abandoned places play a very important role; is there a message in this theme or is it just a narrative resource?
For me abandoned places represent scars on countries and Japan has more and more of them for various reasons. Sometimes because natural disasters prevent people from being able to live in that place and sometimes because the Japanese population is in decline, there are fewer and fewer inhabitants. The most prominent example is the town of Ōkuma, where the Fukushima nuclear plant operated and which, after the accident of its reactor, became a ghost zone.
What attracts you to fantastic stories?
Human beings have an important variety of different and found feelings such as sadness or joy, love or hate, and these do not change as we grow and move forward in our lives. In order to be able to compete, in a span of two hours, with real life, you need to make the audience feel a lot of emotions, which is why I think fantasy is a useful tool to achieve this.
You studied literature at university. Do you sometimes feel that your films have a literary touch?
When I was making my first films there were a lot of images that were like monologues that were repeated over and over. Over time I realized that if I wanted to reach a wider audience, I had to start depicting stories in my works, and this led me to move away from literature a bit. I think that now my creations, and thanks to the help of my whole team, are no longer representations of novels but of entertainment and fun.
Every day there is more talk about the use of artificial intelligence in art, including anime. What is your position on the matter?
The truth is that I don't have a very strong opinion about artificial intelligence because I haven't used it in the creation of my films yet, but I think it can be a convenient tool when it comes to term artistic works, since it can probably facilitate certain tasks. At the same time, I have an optimistic perspective on this because I feel that artificial intelligence will not really replace human work but rather help us, in the same way that computers do or, at one time, machines did write.
How strong was Hayao Miyazaki's influence on you as an animator?
Mizayaki had a huge influence on me, especially as a teenager, as I was a total fan. I was always self-taught and the truth is that I learned a lot about how to make anime through his works. His graphic scripts, which were sold in book format, were of great help to me, I loved reading them.
Do you feel that your current cinema is also influenced by Miyazaki?
Yes, currently in my works what I learned from Hayao is still important, for example, in Suzume there are certain elements and ways of portraying them that are influenced by those of Kiki, the witch's apprentice. Of course I don't want to make films exactly like his, on the contrary, I would like to carry out projects that Miyazaki would never have been able to do. I know I have to go in a different direction because as much as I followed the same line as Miyazaki, I couldn't reach where he reached, so I had to find my own way and constantly move forward.
Which current anime creators do you admire?
I don't know if there are other directors who have influenced me as strongly as Miyazaki, but there are novelists and writers, such as Haruki Murakami, who has a novel called Kafka on the Beach in which there are certain elements that inspired me when making Suzume, such as, among others, the cat Otsuka that Satoru Nakata's character talks to.
