(Photo by Martha K)
I'm flying back to Malaysia next Monday (3rd of August), and thus ends the dream-like 3rd session of my stay in Japan. Long have my Finnish friend Niklas and I have spoken about working on a project together, in fact, when we went to explore the abandoned ruins in Sagamiko back in May, our true intention was location scouting.
However, in June, I ended up doing 3PM for this cinematography course I was taking. It was a relatively an easy shoot, but still slightly taxing. And so I needed time to rest before I could gather myself again for another project. Two weeks ago I began borrowing numerous books from the library that could helpfully spark my creative juices again. Short stories from Akutagawa, Osamu Dazai, Nagai Kafu, Yumiko Kurahashi (the very same book guestblogger Justin mentioned back in 2006), then some anthologies of women writers in Japan (I ended up liking Fumi Hayashi's short story NARCISSUS a lot), I also ordered Italo Calvino's COSMICOMICS and Yiyun Li's A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS from Amazon, then I was watching numerous films for reference (Yoshishige Yoshida's 1970 avant-garde 3 hour film EROS PLUS MASSACRE left me with a headache)
In the end, I settled with doing a third loose adaptation of a Yasunari Kawabata text (my first two were LOVE SUICIDES and KINGYO). Yes, it's anti-climatic, I know. But the film will be different from the previous two (... although I will argue that the two aforementioned films aren't that similar to each other anyway!!!)
Unfortunately, the past week was a roller coaster of dark emotions from some personal issues I don't intend to elaborate, coupled with Yasmin's recent passing. Focusing upon this short film was a little more difficult than before. But now, after some adjustments, I'm excited again, and getting into the 'mood' for creativity.
Only two days away from the shoot. It will be a very small production, but that had never really been a problem.
