We are back in Osaka!

The whole day was reserved for moving.
The team that had been working in Korea flew to Osaka International Airport. The main staff arrived in Osaka via Shinkansen, and the main team came to Osaka by way of location bus and train which took them nearly 10 hours.

In the evening, I saw faces I hadn’t seen in a while. Meeting up with the staffs that were making preparations for the remainder of the shooting to take place in Japan, gave me the “long time no see” feeling. Strange, because it has actually been less than a week.

We went to our hotel and got ourselves settled. Later we went off to see the main location hunting team to confirm the location that had not been decided since last evening.Once we arrived at the sight, I immediately gave an NG to the chief director in charge and the production staff.

They do not understand the setting. Although we are planning to shoot tomorrow evening, we have to find somewhere from scratch.

We went around the Tennouji and Tsuruhashi vicinity, but we could not find a spot that fit our image.

Just when we were totally lost, I remembered the area I am familiar with from my involvement in “Shinra Kukan”.
Yes, Nakazaki-cho!

This is an area where one could still see the town with its historic presence, hidden among the buildings of Umeda.

On the other hand, there are some stylish art spaces and live houses born from renovated old Japanese style houses, and these create a space with a unique feeling.

Many of artists and spiritual people of Kansai (western Japan, mainly Osaka) gather in this area.There is a place called “Amanto” where I frequented when I went to Osaka a few years ago. This is the spot that started the trend I mentioned earlier.

It is the place I visited many times with people like Yuras-san and the people of Shinra, and also the starting point of the supporter group that first screened the film “Yume Oikakete” in Osaka. Even now, Yasu an ex-Shiira member works there as a manager once a week.
I walked the streets of the area with the staffs.

As a result, the staffs said they wanted to shoot inside “Amanto”. I called the owner Jun-san on the spot, but found that he (being a performer) was in Tokyo.
I hastily asked him for his approval in shooting our film at his place.
He readily accepted our request!

Strangely, here too, we were able to renew an old bond.

On the way back, we saw that the red door of the ex-Shiira still retained its shape in the warehouse. Although it was small in size, it was an exciting place. A few years ago on July 26, they had opened the space calling it “Iwato-biraki (opening of celestial rock)”.

Perhaps it was one of the roots for me in the festival of creation.
I explained to the main staff,
“I had done all kinds of things with many young people there…”

“Oh director, you’ve done all sorts of things haven’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’ve done a lot of things.”

I would probably end up talking all night just on this topic.

Perhaps I should leave it at that for today.

(originally posted in Japanese on July 30, 2006)