SHORT SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL & ASIA 2015

For our 1st Music Shorts program screening of the festival, we had 4 sets of directors & actors come out to take part in the post-screening Q & A.

1st up was director Ryoichi Hiraiwa & his cast Tetsu Kuroiwa & Gao Ogawa for his music short “1st Cry” inspired by Kenichi Kitagawa’s song tilted “1.” This short was remarkable in that director chose a psychological horror style of visual storytelling about a young actress who fails an audition & starts to go through a horrifying experience as she tries to gather herself for another try. Ryoichi told us that he is a big fan of horror films & wanted to make an impact with this music short which he certainly did. He got the crowd & all of us working the festival when he told us he cried as he watched his film for the 1st time on a big screen! Hearing things lie this makes everything worthwhile for us!

2nd up was director Sunao Mochizuki who came out from Okinawa where he lives & where the story is located. The song & title of the music short “Tiny Pride” by popular & very cool band “clambonn” is the story of a couple who are going through a rough patch & how it is affecting their ordinary everyday life.  Very thoughtfully produced & the stunning Okinawa locations added a bittersweet quality which made the film sweet & sad at the same time. The director told the audience that the couple in the film are a real life couple who were actually going through a difficult time in their relationship & that gave the film true emotional resonance. Well done!

Next was young Hana Matsumoto who came up with singer/songwriter Atsuki Taketomo. This story of young love was filmed in beautiful Gifu prefecture during the winter & Hana told us that just herself & two of her film student friends filmed the scenes in the deep, fresh snow to wonderful effect. Another example of low-budget filmmaking with stunning results.

The 4th & final set of guests then came up to talk about director Shuho Takase’s music short titled “Daughter.” Based on Japanese superstar singer Maki Ohguro’s hit track titled “Salaryman,” this original short film version tracks the travails of a salaryman father facing his daughter bringing her boyfriend home to meet “Dad.” His daughter & wife both think he’s too strict, old-fashioned & uninspiring. All well acted by Mikino as the unhappy daughter, Shiori Nukumi as the unhappy mother & mysterious fortune-teller & Hirofumi Nakano as the unhappy father who ultimately achieves restoration & redemption.

Whew!

DJ John