Interview (2005 Hong Kong)

Excerpt from an interview with Harada at the 2005 Hong Kong International Film Festival

*A little bit of information about overseas film festivals was left in the text on an old floppy disk at Kiryukan.
This text appears to be either a transcript of a stage greeting by a Hong Kong staff member or an interview with Harada by a magazine reporter.

-(Hong Kong International Film Festival) What is the main purpose of this film?
Harada (hereafter abbreviated as H): The main target audience of this film is children. We also heard stories like this when we were young. *1

-Why does it have so many violent and pornographic scenes, even though it is an anime mainly for children?
H: First of all, we expressed it faithfully to the original work. Violence and erotic expressions can be seen as a challenge to film expression.
In Japan, it cannot be broadcast on television, and some scenes are deleted when it is screened in theaters (due to censorship by the Eirin).
I am lucky to be able to screen the uncut version in Hong Kong.

-Why are there so many depictions of monsters at the beginning and end of the story?
H: Actually, Japanese people believe that monsters bring a lot of fantasy. I want children to watch this anime.　*2

-Is this film the complete version, or have any scenes been deleted?
H: It is almost the complete version, but unfortunately some scenes have been deleted. *3

-Why did you decide to make this manga into an anime?
H: First of all, (Maruo's) drawings are very detailed, and (among his works) the main points of the story are very easy to understand.

-Have you ever considered making other manga by Maruo-sensei into anime?
H: Maruo-san has only allowed me to make two works into anime. One is "MIDORI".
The other one is currently being funded by a French businessman. Right now, we are having difficulty finding production staff.　*4

-In the final scene, the man appears three times. Why?
H: The original manga originally had a lot of black humor, but the anime version became serious.
I thought it was necessary to have some humorous scenes, so I recreated the man who appears three times (as in the original).


*1 We assume that this is a story about a freak show or kidnappers. It is also possible that Harada misunderstood it as "the type of audience he wants to show the movie to".
*2 Harada may have slightly misunderstood the intent of the question. In addition, people under the age of 18 were not allowed to enter the screening of "MIDORI" in Hong Kong.
*3 We assume that the parts that were removed were the exposed genitals. We think that this is a measure taken because, until now, there have always been problems at customs when airlifting the screening master to overseas film festivals.
*4 Dr. Caligari and the Laughing Vampire (as mentioned above). Incidentally, producer Dione chose the experimental and political "Dr. Caligari" project. Harada was worried about the copyright of "Dr. Caligari", but Dione reported to Harada shortly after that "the copyright was cleared". However, there was no document to prove this, so Harada was a little uneasy.


As I have mentioned before in this blog, "Death Lullaby" was scheduled to be screened at the Hong Kong Film Festival, but Hong Kong declined the offer.
After that, the staff of film festivals around the world were replaced by people in their 20s.
The director of the Hong Kong Film Festival, who was in charge of "MIDORI", was a woman in her 20s.

She advised Harada, "If you bring the videos and films into Hong Kong as carry-on luggage instead of air freight, they won't be confiscated by customs." And just as she said, they were not confiscated.
Harada and the director continued to correspond for a while after the festival, but they naturally became estranged.


In this Q&A, there were some parts where Harada did not understand the exact meaning of the questions. (These parts have been deleted here.)
It was the same at the teach-in in France.
When overseas, people ask about the monsters at the beginning and end of MIDORI, and the subliminal message at the end, but Harada, who has not mastered the international language, sometimes gives slightly inaccurate answers.

葵青劇院

The photo of the venue was taken in the middle of people being let in.

第廿九屆 香港國際電影節／Hong Kong International Film Festival: HKIFF

Addendum:

We suspect that this is most likely the interview that was featured in the Hong Kong International Film Festival program.