Downloaded from YTS.MX
Welcome to the audio commentary for the Geki-mation film Violence Voyager.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
My name is Reo Anzai and I'm the film's producer plus will act as host for this.
Together with me on this commentary is the film's director Ujicha.
My name is Ujicha and I wrote the script, designed, illustrated & directed the film.
Thanks for participating.
Ujicha was born in l986 in a town called Uji in Kyoto.
In 2009 he graduated in Tourism Design at the Kyoto Saga University ofArt,
and made his breakthrough with his 20l3 feature debut The Burning Buddha Man.
In 20 I 9 this film Violence Voyager was released theatrically.
Plus it also played many international film festivals.
- Let's start the commentary then. (Reo) - Thanks. (Ujicha)
- The film has already started. (Reo) -Yes. (Ujicha)
This scene is set during summer, right?
Yes, you're right.
Starting off with these blue skies reminds me of Toy Story.
- It's nice. (Reo) -Yeah, I agree. (Ujicha)
At heart, you actually really like family-type films, right?
-You like Whisper of the Heart, right? - I do. (Ujicha)
In your film Burning Buddha Man the main character was a girl, yet now it's a boy.
Is there a reason you called him Bobby and made him a foreigner boy?
The reason is that from a long time ago watching American films
I used to like horror films which
featured a small young boy who played an active part in the story.
So I wanted to make a film with a similar concept.
Like in films from Steven Spielberg a director you love.
- Like that. (Ujicha) - His films. (Reo)
- The films he makes, (Ujicha) -Yes. (Reo)
films like ET and The Goonies
are some examples.
Plus horror films like The Deadly Spawn
and Friday the 13th Part 4.
I mean the ﬁnal chapter, I forgot the proper title.
But it was more like mixing up all these different things
and making this character from that.
The main character is a foreigner, but the setting is Uji, right?
You set it in your hometown.
Yes, you're right. It's not modelled a speciﬁc place there or anything,
but the mountain which is about to appear on screen
is where I used to play a lot when I was a young kid.
As the film is progressing, let's talk about Aoi Yuki who plays Bobby.
She was most famous for voicing the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
But what were your feelings about her voicing the role of Bobby?
Yeah,Aoi Yuki is known for having quite a cutesy type voice and character.
When we started voice recording
instead of me directing her a certain way she came prepared in her way.
And her voice was like you hear now, so I thought this must be Bobby.
So we stuck with it.
I guess it comes naturally to professionals like her.
Though when we had the first script read through meeting she was prepared.
So I think she had decided on how to play the character from before.
When we did the actual recording,
we recorded Yuki's voice at a studio in Tokyo.
You had already coached her acting to be prepared for it,
so it went very smoothly?
Yes, we prepared for it so it would go smoothly.
We're speaking over Hitoshi Matsumoto here.
Oh sorry! Yeah, this is a part which is narrated by Hitoshi Matsumoto.
And here is the opening title.
It was like a dream getting somebody like Hitoshi Matsumoto to appear.
I would have never even thought about it.
Well, in this case we were able to make this film with Yoshimoto talent agency.
And I'm often told that they like to take over things a lot
but there were no troubles here.
Basically, I had thought about many people that I had liked for ages
whom I would have liked to appear.
I didn't think I'd have a chance, but asked for them nonetheless
and they got them all for me.
Regarding members onoshimoto agency, I got IOO% of the ones I asked for.
Yeah. (Reo)
All that I had thought of appeared, so I was incredibly thankful for that.
Yes, all the people who you were a fan of,
all the talents atYoshimoto created time and appeared for this film.
Now the opening sequence has finished and there's a sort of spooky vibe,
as the start of the film.
The opening showed the "Voyager suits" which are to appear in the film
Yes
their design was just featured.
Yeah.
When we talk about your work as Ujicha, bizarreness is a must, right?
It's not something I consciously think about too much,
but thinking about it, you're right.
When making Burning Buddha Man you worked a lot on the Buddha characters
- Yes. (Ujicha) - and their story. (Reo)
Well, you say Buddha, but in the end the story didn't have much to do with that.
Yeah, it was quite a strange story.
The film was influenced by the great Akio Jissoji's work
called Kyoto Kaimasu from TV drama Operation: Mystery.
in a way of making an homage to his work.
In the case of Violence Voyager it is a completely original story from you.
Well, from the start you had explained that you wanted to do this sort of story
- haven't you?(Reo) -Yes.(Ujicha)
I really like films like Westworld and jurassic Park.
So I wanted to
create a theme park where kids go visit many attractions
but in very local-sized way. That was the story.
- Here we see Bobby's father. (Reo) - Naoki Tanaka. (Ujicha)
This was a great performance by Naoki Tanaka of Cocorico.
You're right, it was perfect.
-You directed him? (Reo) -Yeah. (Ujicha)
You could say directing, but actually I don't really remember the speciﬁcs.
-You did talk to him. (Reo) - Really? (Ujicha)
You spoke to him at length.
Did I? I don't really remember to be honest.
In my mind it was just a quick passing by.
Actually, your and Naoki Tanaka's tastes are quite similar,
so you guys got very excited when chatting together.
Things like you both liking insects and stuff.
When I looked him up on Wikipedia I saw that we were both the same height.
- Really? - Yes.
And here is Saki Fujita playing the role of Bobby's mother.
Saki Fujita played two characters for this film.
-Yeah. - This and also...
a completely different character.
Saki Fujita is famous for the voice of Miku Hatsune
she really is amazing.
So, here Bobby arrives on his bike ready to go up the mountains.
-Yeah. - It's a bit like The Goonies.
Also like ET.
Actually, this is what I would do as a kid.
Though that baseball cap,
seemed like an homage to a Tokyo team?
Actually, the reason why he's wearing a hat of a Tokyo team
was that when I was in primary school I played baseball.
And I was wearing the same cap back then,
which had a logo which was trying to copy the big Tokyo team one.
The official Tokyo team logo is YG, but ours was YO,
stands for Yachers Okurayama.
- Sound similar. (Reo) -Yeah. (Ujicha)
So that cap is just something from my personal life.
Nobody would know if you didn't say so.
That team is still around.
Oh really?
Shougase, who worked on the film is also from the same town, right?
-Yeah. - Him too.
Bobby's about to go up the mountain.
You want to take a dump when you get nervous, right?
Yeah, me too as I've got quite a weak stomach.
At first I was a little nervous about Yuki going to voice this scene.
I wondered if she would.
She just went along with what we asked,
but I thought some point we'd get yelled at by someone, but surprisingly we didn't.
Yeah, she was pretty cool about going along with anything.
She was pretty relaxed.
There was an old guy called Sarukichi that used to always hang around my place.
He used to play with the kids in the neighborhood and we used to go to his house.
This character is based on him.
- Really? - Yeah.
Based on his personality or his likeness?
It doesn't look much like him,
but his name and weird character.
When I was a kid...
I was used to have fun playing with him.
But looking back at it, I wonder what sort of a person he was.
Ah, I see.
So, that's an homage.
He was somebody who would eat a dragonfly alive.
Quite avant-garde.
As a kid you know nothing what's around you
you don't know adult's world so you tend to listen to any adults.
So this old guy Sarukichi is an important character, right?
And at first when Akira Okano voiced him
everything he tried wasn't used at all.
Yeah, his way of speaking sounded too young.
He spoke way too cool.
-Yeah, like a dandy. - It just didn't work well.
It was sort of like Sean Connery.
He was initially speaking like james Bond.
Akira Okano's voice is amazing bass baritone.
When I heard his voice only it wouldn't be a problem.
But when balanced with the voices of Aoi Yuki and Saki Fujita, it didn't ﬁt.
I thought hard about how to help him get the right tone,
showed him the jojo's Bizarre Adventure seasons 3 and 4,
and said to do it like 4.
And with that he did this.
This tone?
Josef? Or was itJonathan? To be like that character
is what I showed him, and it turned out to work.
- So it's based on another voice. -Yes.
In Kansai Akira Okano voices a really famous character, everybody knows him.
- Maybe we shouldn't talk about that. -Yeah.
- Probably not good to. - The animal thing, right?
Yes, the animal thing.
For those interested in learning more please mail myself or Ujicha directly.
From here the story moves swiftly along.
I really like this Violence Voyager sign.
Actually, I wanted to make it seem a little more aged and tattered.
But I couldn't manage.
- Really? - I wanted to make it dirtier..
In the English language American release of this film the sign is in English.
I spent so much time making it but they put some sort of CGI over it.
They went a little too far.
Though actually I didn't see the whole thing.
-You only saw the trailer. -Yeah just that.
Is it ok to mention that?
So, Bobby is starting to make his way towards the theme park.
His curiosity is leading him.
I love the image of them thinking about whether to continue or not.
And here appears the sign for Violence Voyager after the bridge.
Always in these sort of situations once you cross a bridge there's no going back.
-Yeah. - Either the bridge disappears...
or some other reason.
There's a bridge called Taikobashi in the film Spirited Away
Crossing that brings you to a supernatural world.
Yeah, it's surprising there's that sort of scary story element to that film.
That film is at heart a horror movie, right?
What we've made is quite similar in concept to that film.
When I initially finished making Burning Buddha Man
you initially got back in touch with me.
And spoke to me about making a sort of strange version of Alice in Wonderland.
During the entire time making this film that idea was always on my mind.
So I think that has something to do with it.
Thinking about sort of dark fantasies,
including Anderson or Grimm tales they have some gross elements.
You too have a sort of mind which
you don't like end things superficially.
You tend to want to see what lies behind the surface of people.
You're the type of director who likes the explore the underside of beings.
Violence Voyager itself is a story about misunderstanding and grudge.
- Like Taguchi here. -Yes him.
Taguchi Tomorowo starts here and his acting is really amazing.
From the start he sets the tone of what's about to come.
I think he's the type of person who you like.
- I think you adore him. -You're right.
Before it was decided that Taguchi Tomorowo would play this role,
this character was based on a character from Kazuo Umezu's manga
called God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand.
It was modelled on the father from one episode of that.
When that manga was turned into a film Taguchi Tomorowo played that character.
So there's a connection here, I thought Taguchi had to be the one to play it.
Yeah.When we initially asked him to play in the film,
I was thinking of the voice like the Project X narrator.
I thought your hopes were for a very academic sounding voice,
very scientist-like voice.
I thought you wanted a voice like Koji Ishizaka from Ultra Q.
But his voice is actually more creepier than I thought.
Looking at the sign above, the squirrel says different thing each time.
Yeah, I changed it every time, one says "I'm sorry,"
I feel I need to apologise to you about that.
Really?
I messed up with the schedule and it wasn't made in time.
I want to apologise to you and everyone else for that.
Since Burning Buddha Man
making films is lengthy and tiring and sometimes you miss deadlines.
But when things don't go as planned we get headaches as well.
I always feel guilty when I think back about that aspect.
For us it's an event we do together every 4 years
I feel like it becoming our custom.
Here she is, Midoriko Higuchi from Tsubomi.
- She got really into her role. -Yeah.
At first she's like a nice big sister,
then things progress and her insanity starts to ooze out.
Was she always a voice actor?
Not really, she's more known for acting in plays.
Ah, that explains her talent.
I think of all the people in the idol group Tsubomi, she's the most talented.
I really wanted her to appear in this from the start.
I worked as a producer for a year with her group Tsubomi
From there...
I really wanted to make this sort of introduction video.
Yeah, you did.
The attraction video introduction which Koike made.
A sort of video which they have in Universal Studios Japan.
Something like used for ET there, the Steven Spielberg ones.
Back to the Future ride has gone, but they had a video with Doc introducing it.
I wanted to do something like that.
I liked those videos over the rides themselves.
To get you excited while waiting in line.
When the ride starts it's soon over.
-Yeah. - That similar feeling...
is what Bobby talks about here too.
Koike is somebody who can make anything.
Yeah.
He has bottomless resources and ability to do so.
-Yeah. - He's amazing.
Though it's not a sort of theme parks that from the TV show Night Scoop.
- it's more proper. -Yeah.
I had initially thought of make it like paradise theme parks from that.
- But it was impossible. - Right.
Oh here it is, it's Sarukichi.
- Right? - Could be, but I wonder.
Well, we don't know.
Innocently, isn't it.
The way he is.
What water! Pitarukan.
Is there a meaning to Pitarukan?
With Pitarukan, well it's a bit strange talking about it here,
I had a foreign friend when I was in primary school.
And his surname was Pitaruka.
- Really? - So it came from there.
- Pitaruka? - I don't know if he's still around.
- So, if he heard this? -Yeah I know.
If Pitaruka is out there get in touch.
We used to play together a lot in primary school.
- Oh this part. - Like Kingsman.
Yeah, I wanted to have a similar feeling in this scene to that film.
When I was a kid these sort of water guns were really popular.
I love this scene where he's trying out the guns.
Bobby picks what it seemed popular choices and tries them out,
Though Akkun is sort of after different things, so it's pretty funny.
Like a shotgun from Mad Max.
An Uzi.
That red Uzi is from Predator 2, the one the kid has.
- Really? - Yeah.
I don't remember it at all.
Why did you choose the dolphin gun?
I thought it was something the character of Akkun would choose.
Not a dolphin, but I had a similar thing as an Anpanman water toy.
So I had thought of that.
What Bobby is holding is similar to what most kids had.
- The famous one? -Yeah.
I think everyone recognises it.
The water effects are really nice.
Yeah, I used real water.
The big difference between this and Burning Buddha Man
is the use here of lots of things like smoke, ﬁre, etc.
Using those sort of special effects at a higher level.
Geki-mation at heart is moving around all the illustrations you've drawn.
Though the way that it's shown on screen like this,
limits the possibilities of what is seen on screen my viewers,
but having these effects creates the feeling of more movement on screen.
Things are getting upbeat and fun in Violence Voyager.
I like the back and forth of water squirting in this scene.
That 'splashing sound.'
During drawing these illustrations, the chair I was sitting
I used the sound of this rusting chair moving.
Amazing. These sound effects.
I used my own voice for the robot voice.
I see.
You're very speciﬁc in regards to the sounds you use.
-Yeah. - This sound is?
For Burning Buddha Man I wasn't able to do a lot of sound effects
Though this time, along with an editor who helped named Kyouhase,
we went around recording things to use.
Bobby's face, from the start to end is quite stable.
Though I still actually struggled a lot with it.
For Burning Buddha Man there was a lot with Beniko, right?
From the start to end of making that film her face changes quite a lot.
Making Geki-mation into a feature film is really tough.
Even at 5 to IO mins,
yet with this 84 minute feature
I think you're the only one in the whole world.
I really respect you for that.
Like seen recently in Isao Takahata's film The Tale of Princess Kaguya
In 'Princess' the use of watercolors,
plus the transparent watercolor backgrounds
Then from them animating the sketches drawn on them
it was a ground-braking method for animations.
Compared to classic Disney animation I think these are quite special types.
I wish they were able to get more known around the world.
And here's the cat.
There's a lot of love for cats here.
Dereck.
Here she is.
To ki ko.
Tokiko's character is that of a beautiful girl, right?
Yeah. Compared to the girls who appeared in Burning Buddha Man
I managed to get better and more skilfull in drawing female characters.
So I hope it showed in this.
Though looking at it she's got a similar hair style and colour to Bobby.
- Her face too. - Looks similar.
Acting her is Yoshimi Maeda from the idol group S0.0N Project.
This was the first time she acted and she worked hard.
Nao Hanai who featured in Burning Buddha Man helped teach her.
- At the studio. - It was first time forYoshimi.
Nao helped her a lot.
Idols, in their profession, learn various things such as performing on stage,
but being able to act by making up a different voice to work with is different.
Though I think that new element actually worked well with the character of Tokiko.
Her doing this role was even featured in the trailer for the film.
She was great.
The cat's voice of Dereck is great.
- Here we go. - It's disappeared!
- Her line on the trailer. - It's coming.
There are a lot lines of dialogue which explain everything we see.
- She said it. - "We're done for."
Here it is, the dog.
-You used to have a dog, right? -Yeah.
After making Burning Buddha Man I remember that it died unfortunately.
Yes, it died around the time I finished the script of Violence Voyager.
- It's name was Sakura? -Yeah.
Sorry about that.
Sorry, but dogs dying is just a fact of life.They all die eventually.
But you really like animals, right?
-Yes. - So this scene is quite detailed.
Oh Dereck!
He fell in a very nice way.
Tokiko has been grabbed!
He's arrived
- Takashi. -Yes, it's a spoiler?
And open.
This timing is right out of a horror film.
Just when you think things are OK a big dog comes in.
Exactly like in the Resident Evil game.
It reminded me ofJurassic Park.
The mother's scene.
She looks like Mona Lisa.
The sunset gives it a sepia tone and makes it feel like that.
A massive forehead!
Even though we know its Summer because of the sound of cicadas
the father is wearing that sort of red, warm vest.
-Yeah. - He's wearing that.
Maybe he gets cold easily.
And here is some sort of facility.
Some sort of ominous area.
They've just entered.
There are loads of...
different monster type objects laying around.
In regards to the editing cuts, it's about every 3-4 seconds per cut.
Yeah, there are quite a lot of pretty fast cuts in it.
When thinking about how long it actually took to film it all,
the scenes and cuts are about 3x those in Burning Buddha Man.
Between l,000 to about 3,000 cuts?
The voice of Nao Hanai.
Her voice has very transparent and travels far.
As a voice actor she's very articulate when speaking.
She even did it all twice.
She was very easy to work with and did a great job with it.
From the moment her voice appears your attention is held by it.
With that scene nicely setting up this shot.
I thought long and hard about this and how exactly to connect them.
He's eating from a very traditional Japanese bowl
Something you'd see your grandparents using.
Amazing.
Shigeo Takahashi playing two roles in the film,
Did you envision that from the start?
Yes, I had the image of twins in my head from the start.
And to have the same voice actor playing Akkun and Yakkun?
Not just the same voice actor, but I wanted Shigeo Takahashi for both.
- Him for these. - From a while back.
I thought if he was able to handle it well I wouldn't have any other worries.
He's didn't have any problems and we were able to progress quickly and smoothly.
Actually... forget it.
Just a meaningless story.
I feel sorry I troubled him a lot as it was well behind schedule.
Tomoyuki.
This is the voice of a very famous writer.
Yeah.
When I asked Nakazawa if he had any message to use on this audio commentary.
He said that he was right after Aoi Yuki when recording in the studio.
- He was super nervous. -Yes he was.
And that he felt a massive amount of pressure because of that.
He recorded loads of takes of him making vomiting and gagging sounds.
We used those sounds at many points in the film.
You're right.
-The sound of kids being in agony. - He records loads of different things.
You got with him and recorded a bunch.
This is Minori Kanda.
No you're mistaken. This is...
Saki Fujita who played two roles like Okano.
My mistake, it was Saki Fujita.
This is actually producer Koji Ueno.
It doesn't actually sound like he usually talks though.
- Completely different. - He made a strange voice for us.
I usually don't like these flashback scenes actually.
But in this scene I liked the way they spoke.
And thought it was quite interesting so I put the scene in.
You put it in.
The way you personally speak and write dialogue is quite direct and frank
so even these kids here are speaking quite like adults.
Actually, I set it so that the character Sayaka here has an IQ of 15O.
Actually it was 125.
Here is Yasuhiro Takeda, from the animation studio Gainax.
He sounds like a real old man.
- He does. -Though his character is the youngest.
Maybe people don't know it, but Gainax is a big anime studio in Kyoto.
Yasuhiro Takeda is one of the founders.
A lot time ago he made a film called Kaiketsu No Tenki which I loved.
He also sometimes works at the University I also teach at
I was very excited that we were able to use him in this film.
This is Kanda.
Minori Kanda.
There she comes!
And here we are, the spine-chilling scene has started.
Having a child as the main character and doing violence voyager, literally.
Having children doing and involved with these sort of violent acts,
is something which is frowned upon in various countries worldwide.
You're right.
It's always been that children essentially are brimming with curiosity.
So the possibility of danger always follows them.
Though nowadays people have gotten stricter in controlling things,
there's become quite a limited places we can show these things.
Though I think controlling things too much is never a good thing, personally.
The film is released as Violence Voyager,
so it's about taking a 'voyage.'
Originally at Universal Studios with rides like Jurassic Park and Jaws,
there were attractions which you would travel through on a boat.
And from that I decided on using the term 'voyager.'
Oh I see.
I would relate it more to Star Trek:Voyager.
A voyage into space.
A story of taking a long voyage through space and back.
I used to love that show.
Though the original title was not just Violence Voyager.
-Yes, you're right. - Something about tropical.
Yeah, something like that.
The laser beam sound is the same as you used in your short film Tempura.
Yeah, that's a sound I made with my iPhone and rearranged for this.
You were very speciﬁc about using a certain noise for it, right?
-Yes. - Oh Akkun...
Akkun's in trouble.
This BIu-ray also contains the short film Tempura as well.
I think if you watch that you'll see it as a sort of pilot version of this film.
It was made in between Violence Voyager and Burning Buddha Man right?
Yes.
So there's some sort of connection with the characters, too?
Yes, it's a compact version of this.
Right.
To all of you, please watch Tempura.
Tempura was originally a short in the omnibus film The ABCs of Tetsudon.
A series of shorts from different directors running from A to Z.
You were at T, right?
- Yes. - Letter T.
I also made something for it, but I won't mention it here.
The father going up the mountain.
It's already past IO at night.
It's getting more and more dark.
From around now on we start to see what Koike was planning.
The design of the Voyager suits came from the l9805,
with the cassette tape or stereo decks of that time?
Yes.
That's the base of their design.
- Speaking ofVoyager suits - Like on Takashi's face?
That's not aVoyager suit. The suits are blue.
- The blue raincoat. -Yeah.
-The thing on his head is? - For the head it's...
based on an old Panasonic mini-disc player my sister had.
I used that as the model for it.
Personally I'm really scared of mandrills,
so it's taking from that fear to make this.
I see.
I love the way Taguchi says 'Takashi-chan' here
It gets more strange.
He says that it's his first foreigner, though he met him just before.
-You're right. -Though there's a big reaction from him.
Maybe he forgot?
The person voicing Takashi from the group Ban Ban Ban.
The person whose gimmick is the character 'Freezer.’
-Yamamoto. -Yes, he appeared for us.
We told him not to use his 'Freezer' voice.
Though he did try out a few different things with that voice.
- During recording? -Yeah.
Though if you pay attention to his voice, you can hear a bit.
- Oh yeah. - His Freezer voice.
When he speaks at length I guess you can sort of hear it.
The father's flashlight.
His appearance only jumped them badly.
I wonder what Sarukichi was doing in that darkness?
I wonder.
He was in trance, wasn't he?
He wasn't just sleeping.
Sakukichi is quite a mysterious character.
For the first half we have no idea who he is.
Is he an enemy or a friend?
Though even until the very end you may not know exactly who he is.
There's a lot of mystery around him.
You're right.
From those who have already seen the film know that at the end we see
the relationship between Sarukichi and Bobby.
But his purpose in it all is still a mystery.
Initially he was working with Koike but now he's apart and living alone.
That sort of thing.
I love Akira Okano's voice.
The boys must be hanged up naked in this case?
That's a kind of funny question.
I don't think it 'must,' I guess.
The purpose for a tank in the back is for storing 'food' right?
Yeah, though he's gets fed through his mouth.
- His mouth. -That's true.
He 'eats' through his mouth and storing in the back.
This mother thing is pretty damn scary.
I wanted to ask you how it became like that.
I don't know myself.
It was Koike's ex-wife who turned into this sort of mother creature?
I wonder... I don't know myself.
You don't? It's your story.
But I'm not Koike.
- I see. - I don't know.
The red thing is what exactly?
- I don't know either. - Not that too?
Sorry, I really don't know.
This is the feeding scene.
What's the purpose of the scene?
A purpose?
Normally eating is when you're having fun putting things in your mouth,
here it's eating and yelling at the same time.
But using this very complicated device to feed,
and also...
that, how do you say it,
it's connected to the later development, sacrificing other people's kids
only and selfishly to bringing up his own children.
Also he's overprotecting his children, he's utterly evil.
That was what's in my mind when making this scene.
-The parent's ego. - In most horrific way.
I really wanted to depict that, I actually love that scene.
It's more that I wanted to show that instead of having a speciﬁc reason for it.
I think you did deliver that in very graphic way.
So instead of going over the speciﬁcs of it but visual image was the key.
Yes.
Geki-mation films are at their heart a mixture of loads of various visuals.
It's not normal animation.
So you connect visual images to deliver your message to the viewers.
That's the important bit.
Oh, Bobby has started to make his escape.
There's a lot of nervous excitement here.
Yeah, it's a pretty fun scene.
- The viewers feel thrilled, too. - It's quite a mysterious setting
You see the experiments he's been doing in the past,
in the background.
Yes.We start to see Koike's past life in this.
Kidnapped.
Nice editing. Getting kidnapped then immediately cutting.
It's a well-made flow.
He's crying and yelling.
Leaving him on the mountain seemed more dangerous actually.
He's brought him this far so why split up now?
We see the father's feelings here. His parental instincts and he's in panic.
He's worried about Bobby.
Oh, this is a nice scene.
- Takaaki. - Yeah.
Here he is.
- Daisuke Ono. - Getting Daisuke...
- to appear in this... -Very handsome voice.
Seemed like a strange way to use his talents.
I was so happy that he was able to appear in this.
He's super busy so I didn't think he would be able to,
but he was able to make a little a little time and come to Shinjuku.
Daisuke Ono playing this character in prison.
Was modeled on his character of Jotaro in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
Oh really?
When we was filming this there was an earthquake.
I remember.
Daisuke Ono opened the door in the studio for us.
He helped us with the emergency exit.
I thought that was great.
He was ever so calm.
Daisuke Ono really loves Yoshimoto comedians.
Really?
So he was really happy that we could record atYoshimoto's studio.
- He's really likes Buddha statues, too. - Oh really?
So, he said he wants to come to Kyoto to see them.
He's great.
A perfect voice.
It's amazing having both Daisuke Ono and Aoi Yuki starring together.
Quite a luxury.
Just as you mentioned before, they're kids who speak like adults.
-Yeah. - Even with all that's going on,
- They're calm. - he speaks so calmly.
Though actually I didn't think it was imperative to use children's voices.
Because it's obvious it's a story about children.
It would be strange to use real children's voices.
You really pay attention listening to Daisuke Ono talk.
The reason for remodelling these suits
has to do with some experiments of Koike?
I wonder.
It's hard to answer...
- ...such a question actually. - It's no problem.
I assume that many people watching this are wondering why.
You're right.
The speciﬁcs...
I like this action.
Jean-Paul Takahashi who made the music for this,
it's more a sort of melancholic tone instead of upbeat action.
Especially at the end, he created a very sad tone with music.
Not the type you'd usually associate with normal horror films.
Do the pants hold some important message?
Important message? I wonder if you could say 'important.'
Wearing pants is covering up your naked body.
Talking about that, in regards to Bobby's appearance,
I wanted many steps to change.
Starting from the beginning and going throughout to the end
I wanted transform his appearance step by step.
I wanted different versions of his look for each step.
So he's got one costume at the start of the film.
Then a change of clothes when they set off,
then he's got the Voyager suit to wear.
Then him in his pants.
So, Bobby is continuously...
changing his clothes in respect to how he is also changing as a person.
And from him wearing pants now there's another costume coming up too.
It's similar to classic horror movies.
The way the bad guy appears like this. Brilliant.
I like the way Koike appears with that sort of motion.
- She's down. - Been caught.
Been caught.
He's twirling like mad, even his eyes have gone crossed.
He's getting dizzy.
- That was used in the trailer. - Yeah.
Koike's mood is great. He's talks very calmly as well.
Culture solution I guess?
It's turned all red.
I filmed that water surface bit at Takaragaike Park.
- Ah, so you mixed the video in? -Yeah, a little.
Cool.
Dad's arrived.
He's arrived already cuz he's an adult.
He's come this far after climbing the mountain.
He's already got to the core.
The stick he's using is the tool you use for stirring a bath, right?
Yes. Most of the objects are things I used as a kid and have stuck in my mind.
That bath stirring stick was actually something at my relative's house.
I wonder why, but it has stayed in my memory.
I wanted to use it so I put it in the film.
Actually we didn't have one at my house.
I knew of the tool myself,
- But didn't use it. - Nobody actually does.
- It's quite a strange tool. -Yes, it is.
Though there is a sort of culture for using it
I don't even know what it's called.
Maybe It's not popular in our region, people in other regions do it?
What the dad is holding is called an ice ax, right?
-Yeah. - But I've never used one before.
Well, I think it's only used by people who go climbing.
- I don't think anybody else owns one. - I don't.
When I think of an ice ax, all I can think of is the Ice Ax-Shark from Kamen Rider.
-The sea creature? - Yeah.
A shark with an ice ax.
Koike does anything for his children.
The father.
Koike and the other have appeared to check it out.
Amazing.
The story's developed way too rapidly, right?
I was worried if the meaning would get across or not.
This is the world of Ujicha.
The way that geki-mation is used to show this very strange story.
That's how it works.
Yet when I read your scripts,
I do think you are aware of the audience and how far they are able to follow along.
You may think that its visuals may be hard to follow along,
but I think it's ok to do even more.
It's the way your style is, so you don't need to think of making it another way.
These people are living in a twisted world.
If you calmly try to analyse things
it'll take away from the film's power.
There's a lot of that.
Making it more calm and structured is not really your style.
The viewers would think
"How come? But it's funny!" or "That's freaky!"
That's what geki-mation is supposed to be I think.
Personally I really did try to make something in a very well-made way.
Though it's just hard I guess, making a feature film like this.
Yeah, it takes a whole lot of time,
since you're doing it all by yourself it gets more and more...
in a way, paralyzing.
You're doing it for so long that you can lose sight of the story as a whole.
But I think the people who are watching use a lot of their imagination, too.
There are a lot of differences in taste between Voyager and Burning Buddha.
So I think audience's reactions to both are quite different too.
There are a lot of people who said they didn't understand the story of Buddha.
I know, so this time I tried to make the story pretty clear throughout.
I thought this time to focus on a story anybody could follow.
Conversely, the people who liked Burning Buddha Man said
that I hadn't gone far enough with Voyager and I should have made it more crazy.
Talking about Burning Buddha Man
the ending where Beniko is awakened, is a pretty over the top ending.
Violence Voyager has a pretty simple story of going somewhere and returning.
It has the same type of story as Mad Max: Fury Road.
Guess it's pretty simple if you think about it.
I guess that most entertainment movies are all relatively simple actually.
Here we go.
Daisuke Ono's last line...
Bobby, I'm counting on you.
Looking at it here, Bobby didn't hesitate at all to leave them.
-Yeah. -You expect him to stay around more.
Well, I guess he knew Takaaki won't last.
The scene has changed.
- Full of garbage. -Yeah.
I always talked about this scene when doing cinema Q&As
this scene was originally a lot longer.
When this chimpanzee who came to help Bobby and bring him away,
- there was a crocodile... - Who it fought with!
They fought for about I and a half mins.
- It was... -Too much.
-Yeah, I think so. - So it was cut.
I didn't even film it actually, just storyboarded it.
Yeah, talking about editing, when you were making the 2nd half of the film
you were going over each scene to film and decided to not make that one.
I wanted to convey, that the Chimpanzee was strong.
But thought it didn't need it.
It occurred to me when watching this again
it's not something conscious, but coming from childhood.
A lot of things from my childhood somehow kept on getting incorporated.
- From your own childhood? -Yes.
I see.
Things from your past that somehow come to mind?
Yes, for example the way the bandage is tied,
I remembered from playing the game of Resident Evil 2.
I see.
Things I remember from playing games or from watching certain films
seemed to pop into my mind and got incorporated into this.
Pants fight.
Actually, I don't exactly know why I did it that way. I can't remember.
The thing about Sarukichi not wanting to give the pants back.
As it was his memorabilia.
I said I didn't like flashbacks, but there are a lot of scenes of them.
Flashback tend to explain things.
I had originally thought that I didn't want to use that technique.
I like the red bowtie. Implying his parents are wealthy?
And what's the meaning of the bear?
He gets a meaningless death?
Meaningless?
- More like unexpected? -Yeah, just by an accident.
That big a bear in the mountains are scary.
- That attacks humans too. -There are lots of animals.
- A grizzly bear. - There was a crocodile, too.
Dereck is still alive.
Yeah, there was a crocodile, too.
Yeah, to fight with the chimpanzee. There are so many things in nature.
So, it makes sense telling the father not to go up the mountain.
-There are crocodiles and bears. - Not suitable for even adults.
- Kanji was voiced by? - Fuminori Sato.
Fuminori Sato who is a celebrity whose known for impressions.
He's quite a talented guy.
These armor-like things putting on people
was something I used to see a lot in the past.
Like for the Gundam rubber toys you would ﬁnd in Gatcha machines.
- Rock Man, too. - I remember.
I used to love those things when I was a kid.
But some of them don't ﬁt properly.
Or they broke instantly and got annoying.
Instead of the toys which were already assembled
I loved the ones you would assemble yourself from lots of parts.
He says hmmm, but what is actually leaking out?
This is the goo he ate before?
I wonder what it actually is?
Though the bat licks it.
What Sarukichi says is funny.
"The cool friends."
Originally this scene was much longer, like I0 minutes or so.
It was really tough to change around everything here.
Well you, you're doing almost every aspect by yourself
you can decide which scenes you want or don't early on.
But as you're making things you might after think something doesn't work
and may change it after.
Is this the same water gun that Bobby initially used?
I think that Kanji must have done something with that.
- Thrown it away or something. - I see.
You often see duct-tape used in American films like this.
-Yeah. -To strap on things.
- That's where I got that from. - Using it to strap things on.
Compared to Burning Buddha Man there are more scenes in low light?
- Do you think so? - As there are more interior shots?
I think I used more contrast than before.
And finally, this was when I burned the drawing for real.
It looks really nice.
You often see this before the main battle.
A scene where everyone gets together, it's quite a classic type scene.
Assembling in front of a bonﬁre.
It's incredibly simple,
a simple and easy to understand story.
From here the feel of Violence Voyager sort of changes.
Koike, I mean Sarukichi, he's not even going yet he looks he is.
Yeah. Even wearing combat gear.
This music was chosen by you?
I wanted something like the ﬁnal scenes of aYakuza film.
- Heading into battle. - I imagined the big fight.
It's quite a different style to the rest of the music used.
-Yeah. - It's quite characteristic music.
So you imagined Ken Takakura going into battle at the end?
- Yes. - Right.
Amazing. He's strong. Ah, the dog...
Like, it's out of nowhere.
Pretty sloppy really.
- Isn't it? - I thought about putting it all...
having all the people killed before just pop out in this scene.
Reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
there's a scene where all the skeletons pop out in a cave?
There's that, but actually I had imagined Papillion.
There was a similar scene in Papillion.
-The Steve McQueen film. -Yeah.
l remember.Though with you I thought maybe you'd be doing a Raiders homage.
It's also in Raiders, so I guess it came from both films.
- Wow, look at that. - The way he's peeking...
from above is similar to in Temple of Doom.
Yeah, Indiana Jones does the same thing.
Midoriko Higuchi's part has started.
Actually, in Burning Buddha Man a character also used an ipad.
For some reason iPads appear in my films.
Yeah, I remember the scene.
Though I guess that's just a part of today's culture.
I think people will be using them for the next IO or 20 years.
- The titan appears. -The ﬁre here...
it was quite dangerous but I filmed a lot of it for real.
At the entrance to the garage.
- Oh you filmed it there? -Yeah.
Amazing.
I did it with a friend of mine named Washi.
A lot of your friends are quite Avant-Garde.
She actually says "It's broken!"
When it breaks down the machine can't be used anymore.
Saying broken out loud was homage to Kazuo Umezu.
- I see. - He does that in his comics.
That sort of commentary like 'it's broken.'
Wow!
From here on it gets...
How do you say,
an emotional battle of humans.
You wonder how this or that ends up like it does.
Makes you think, right?
The thing about air coming from hands is because he's transformed?
Yes, that's right.
It came out from the wound on his hand.
Yeah
Her...boyfriend?
Could be her boyfriend or someone else.
- Duct tape reappears -The duct tape is used.
This scene is here because you wanted to use the duct tape.
- It appeared before. -Yeah.
It's quite a big sacriﬁce.
A sacriﬁce by everyone dying.
For both Violence Voyager and Burning Buddha Man,
Geki-mation's visuals made it very much ﬁt the horror mould.
During the screening of Burning Buddha Man
at the Okinawa film festival, many children left abruptly.
They sure did.
It was a bit scary for them.
It's quite a literary announcement.
-Yes. - Formally known as Bobby.
I thought long and hard about deleting this scene.
Deleting it wouldn't be right, so I left it as is.
You've got a certain literary element around you.
That's not true.
You tend to read a lot of books and watch old films.
You wrote the script,
but the use of words in it is like from somebody in their 505 or 605.
- Is it? -You do speak like that sometimes.
Well, actually I do want the characters to speak in that way sometimes.
Though I don't think I'm that good at writing literature.
It's just sometimes I'm speciﬁc on certain dialogue.
These are what came from inside the mother?
Yes, these are all captured children.
The children who were feeding Takashi.
They've all come out from her.
Here we go, the big battle at the climax of the film.
I like the images of ﬁre happening.
I wanted to have this at the climax.
The music too is quite melancholic, quite sad.
There's a lot more burning here than I did in Burning Buddha Man.
Yeah, actually there wasn't much ﬁre in Burning Buddha Man
Not at all.
It actually was more melting at the end.
And Koike is surrounded by them.
And Takashi...
I love the way he says that about the soft part.
It's obviously the soft part, you can't pierce the hard part.
He didn't even try on the hard part.
He did, but him saying that in words is what I like about your creative sense.
Just spelling it out loud.
The white thing is melted children.
For this scene, you asked advice Hiroshi Sagae,
the modeling artist.
Yeah, for the end parts including the next bit
Hiroshi Sagae has...
passed away recently.
He was a really helpful and important advisor and friend to us.
He thought a lot of you and was very helpful in giving ideas and the such.
The ﬁnal battle,
There it is.
Takashi-Chan!
Did you always envision the end to be like this?
What do you mean?
The ﬁnal part of laser beams shooting out of hands
shooting these massive beams.
I actually wanted to do something a little more intelligent and complex.
But in the end it turned out like you see.
Something intelligent like needing to solve a puzzle?
Yes, something like that.
But when trying to emphasize the visual aspects
it turned out like this.
Big explosion.
You can see the back of the paper with the ﬁre.
It's like the music video for Denki Groove's Mononoke Dance.
At the end in that when you're shown how it's made.
- Yeah. - Right.
For this, I went up a hill and recorded this when no one was around.
Recorded it by a lake there.
Created an explosion there.
It's a nice explosion. Quite different to the others so far.
It took about 3 takes.
Of course digital sound effects can be good,
but making it for real is definitely the best.
Recording everything for real sure is complicated though.
Nowadays there are so many sound effects which are available digitally.
For example, on Burning Buddha we got the real shamisen sound.
For this too, the violin sound in the ending song did the same.
Returning home to mother.
Actually, using this flower surprisingly has a lot of different meanings to it.
Please look them up yourself though.
If you've said this much you should properly explain.
- I forgot actually. - Oh you did?
It's a flower called gladiolus, I think.
Here is Hitoshi Matsumoto's narration.
He's great.
When I first heard this when the film was completed it made me cry a bit.
Hitoshi Matsumoto tried this in 3 different ways for us too.
Speaking to you, he kept on asking "Is this one ok?"
You were convinced.
When this played at a film festival in Argentina,
at this point when the mother's face appears the audience bursted out laughing.
- Really? Wow. -Yeah.
Is this scene funny?
I wonder. My intention wasn't to make a funny scene or anything.
In Korea the audience also went wild at the end of Burning Buddha Man.
I remember. I guess audiences in certain countries are certain ways.
This theme song for the film is sung by Aoi Yuki.
Jean-Paul Takahashi, composed the music.
And I wrote the lyrics.
I think we made a great song, if you don't mind me saying.
It's a brilliant song.
At the stage greetings at the Okinawa Film Festival,
I met Yuki just before it started and asked her how the recording went.
She said it was a teen song.
I was thinking, "a teen song?" and while I was going over that in my head.
I was told "time to go on stage."
But it's a great song, especially using the voice of Bobby for it.
At the same time as the credits roll we see your storyboards, right?
They're the step before storyboards.
- Called image boards. - Oh image boards.
- They're your start points? -Yeah
Though they're pretty much as I plan on continuing with things.
Yeah.
Kyoto Saga University ofArts as a supporter.
Oh yeah.
Various things from there.
That the university where I work for.
I also thought a lot about this screen with this drawing.
The way I illustrated them.
Though at this point, don't we need to start wrapping up?
Working with Yoshimoto we made Violence Voyager.
You've already started planning your next film.
- It's decided. -Yes.
Right.
Yes I'm doing a little something.
It'll be announced sometime soon so, please watch this space.
This was the audio commentary for Violence Voyager.
- Thank you. - That was director Ujicha.