Katagiri, second from left, talks to Kaeru-kun, second from right, as they try to save Tokyo from destruction.
12:15 JST, September 13, 2024
Six of Haruki Murakami’s stories are woven together into an animated film, for the first-ever animated adaptation of the author’s work. The film, “Mekurayanagi to Nemuru Onna” (“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”), is directed by the multitalented Pierre Foldes.
“I was fascinated by his whole style, his whole word,” Foldes said. “I didn’t want to [adapt] just one short story [by Murakami] …I thought I wanted to make something more complex and richer, and that’s why I chose a lot of stories.”
The film is set in Tokyo shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. A man named Komura spends his days in a daze following the disappearance of his wife, Kyoko. A series of events leads him to travel to Hokkaido to deliver a package to the sister of a co-worker. Around the same time, Katagiri, another co-worker of Komura, returns home to find a two-meter-tall giant frog waiting for him. The frog begs Katagiri to join him in the fight and save Tokyo from destruction.
A boy (left) asks Komura a question, who then goes in search of his memories from the past.
The six short stories used in the film are “Mekurayanagi to Nemuru Onna” (“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”), “Kaeru-kun Tokyo o Sukuu” (“Super Frog Saves Tokyo”), “Birthday Girl”, “Kaitsuburi” (“Dab Chick”), “Nejimakidori to Kayobi no Onnatachi” (“The Wind-Up Bird and the Women of Tuesday”) and “UFO ga Kushiro ni Oriru” (“UFO in Kushiro”).
Foldes, who was born in the United States and raised in Paris, calls himself a cosmopolitan. When Murakami first suggested to Foldes that he adapt a single short story into a film, he found it torture to choose just one, such was his ardent Murakami fan. Foldes then made his own suggestion: several stories could be combined into one. The first piece Foldes chose was “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” which would form the basis for the entire film. The last piece he chose was “Dabchick,” which he cut into several pieces to use as “little promenades,” or transitions, between the other stories.
To choose the six stories, Foldes read all of Murakami’s short stories thoroughly and then followed his instincts to make a final decision.
Komura, left, spends time with a woman at a hotel in Hokkaido.
“Then I find myself in the labyrinth of Murakami stories,” he said. “I feel drawn to something light, or to something dark, something mysterious and something magical, and I try to grab them, and embrace them and become myself. [in] “Those stories.”
Characters and episodes from different works are organically linked, creating a hybrid story.
“You have different plants in the same pot. They’re growing, and then their roots start to grow together, and the plants start to grow together in my mind. And gradually I start thinking, ‘Oh, but this character is going to go in here. Maybe this character could be that character, and so on and so forth.’ And, little by little, before you know it, a story starts to emerge, but the story is all Murakami bits,” Foldes said.
Kyoko has a strange experience on her 20th birthday.
As the original stories were adapted, they took on a new perspective and a new appeal.
“I just do things the way I feel like doing them. I just follow my instincts. People might think, ‘Oh, this is a crazy interpretation.’ That’s what it is. I don’t think it’s crazy because it’s completely honest, completely inspired. If you follow your heart, if you follow your inspiration, you can’t go wrong,” Foldes said.
A film from 4 countries
The animated sequences for the film were created using a special technique based on real footage of actors performing. The production was an international operation involving four countries: France, the Netherlands, Canada and Luxembourg. The live-action video was filmed in Canada and the background footage was produced in Luxembourg. The collaboration resulted in a distinct feeling and freshness, even though the story takes place in different locations in Japan, just like the original short stories.
Foldes revealed that he plans to make a live-action adaptation of a Japanese manga.
“I would really like to collaborate with Japanese studios,” he said.
A pleasure to watch
A special screening of the film was held at Waseda University in Tokyo in June prior to its release. Murakami and Foldes participated in a talk session at the event.
“I watched the film twice and liked it both times,” Murakami said. “It was really interesting. I couldn’t even tell if some scenes were unique to the film or if they were written by me.”
The discussion became lively when they talked about Kaeru-kun, the giant frog from “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” and the most notable character in the film.
Haruki Murakami, left, and Pierre Foldes shake hands during a special screening of “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.”
“I don’t know how Kaeru-kun came into being [in my work]“I can’t remember,” Murakami said. “It’s like he came in from another world. [‘Super-Frog Saves Tokyo’] has a style that is far removed from so-called serious literature, so the editor was also surprised. But this short story is very popular worldwide. I like it too.”
Foldes provided Kaeru-kun with his own voice in the English-language version of the film.
Many of Murakami’s works have been adapted into films, including the short stories “Drive My Car” and “Naya o Yaku” (“Barn on Fire”).
“In the case of a novel, filmmaking inevitably involves the omission of [elements],” Murakami said. “With a short story, a director has to bring something of themselves to the film, so I feel like adapting short stories makes for a more ambitious film.”
When asked which of his works he would like to see on the big screen, Murakami quickly chose “Underground.” The nonfiction work consists of interviews with 62 people affected by the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, including victims.
“The book is filled with the voices of many different people. It would be great if they were made into a film, but that would be very difficult,” Murakami said, sounding hopeful.
