Shukuzu (1953)

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   monty

   "I Became a Director". Kaneto Shindo
   
   Miniature is the decisive work that made me a director. I wrote lots of screenplays, and I'm still writing. There was a time when I was so possessed by screenwriting that I never thought of becoming a director."I'll just make this one." I made it, but I was unhappy with here and there. Perhaps that's what it meant to make a film. There are lots of things you don't like once you completed the film.
   
   "I'll make one more." So I made Avalanche, and then Children of Hiroshima. My discontent grew stronger. I had to choose between giving up directing or keep going. I made Miniature to make up my mind.
   
   I was strongly concerned with Nobuko Otowa. I made Story of a Beloved Wife and Children of Hiroshima with her. I wanted to draw out the unfilmed, the unknown part in her. Ginko of Shusei Tokuda's Miniature was in my mind for a long time. I decided to let Otowa portray this role.
   
   It was hard times for our independent company, but the Mingei Theatre Group backed us up with all their members, including Isuzu Yamada, So Yamamura and Eitaro Shindo. We had trouble with blackouts but in spite of that, shooting often went on throughout the night. Thanks to that I earned the nickname "Tiresome Shindo" [sindoi sindou].
   
   Otowa threw herself completely into the performance. To quit Daiei and go independent means giving up her whole earnings. She was a determined woman and had no fear of that. Sometimes she made tours to sing in the provinces. She learnt singing during her time at the Takaratsuka Revue.
   
   I went against the customs of making "geisha movies". I made "baby cranes" to move my camera around the Japanese room. The beauty of Japanese architecture, with its sliding doors and stools, comes with its cubic symmetry. I tried to break that. Ginko lives in this kind of space. To break through this design is to approach Ginko head on.
   
   I asked for the utmost realism to my actors and crew. I could never forget the contribution of our cameraman Takeo Ito. He was one of those expelled during the Toho strikes. He was a veteran cameraman, when Kazuo Hasegawa moved from Shochiku to Toho, he took Ito with him. Of course he would shoot Hasegawa in his best-looking, but apart from that, he was good in shooting actresses too.
   
   I, an upcoming director, was lucky to have such a veteran. I asked for pan-focus, and he achieved that beautifully. Pan-focus means that all areas should be in focus. If you fix the lens at the same focus, the picture would be stiff, emotions would be lost. Therefore the focus should not be fixed at one point. To do that the cameraman has to know when the picture would be in focus.
   
   Nowadays all films are made with pan-focus in mind, but during the post-war period, it was very difficult to do that. Movies are images, so by all means the picture must be beautiful. Also, monochrome is the aesthetics of black and white.
   
   With Miniature, I made up my mind to be a director. I wouldn't give up screenwriting, instead I became a writer-director. I'd write, direct, and take charge of all visual matters. This does not mean that I would write a handy script to satisfy my desire to direct. I did that because I want to make films that I really want to. 10 years 4 months ago

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